Howling to the Stars
by TheFallenArchangel
Summary: They almost got their forever, it was so close, although naturally, the Universe had other plans. What if it was The Doctor who ended up trapped in Pete's world? And what if, while trying to help, the TARDIS sealed the fate of Rose Tyler? The Doctor may be gone, but thanks to a gift that went wrong, there's someone else who can hold claim to being the last Time Lord. Season 3 AU.
1. Doomsday

**A/N: Yes. I know, I'm starting another story with three others not completed. I'm a horrible human being and I deserve to die. *sighs and hangs head in shame* I have a problem. Anyway, just a thought. In some ways this could be considered a prequel to Glimpses of the Future, though there are some subtle differences.**

**Disclaimer: All rights to the characters go to BBC. If I owned Doctor Who, you'd know it.**

**Warnings: Nothing drastic, some language, and your feels may break in this first chapter. **

* * *

"Once the breach collapses, that's it! You will never be able to see her again, your own mother!" He was close, and he was angry. To be more precise, the anger was directed at _her. _She was't sure if she had seen him like this since the early days, since his last body when she made so many mistakes in a desperate attempt to save her father. That was different than this time, this time she _knew _she was right, was completely sure in her decision, and she let him know it in her next words.

"I made my choice a long time ago and I'm never gonna leave you." He stilled at the words, something flashing behind his eyes. "So what can I do to help?" Because there was no way she was going to sit on the sidelines this time, not about to sit around and hide while he did this. The warbled noise of the coms rang out above them, and she didn't really know what it meant, but she also didn't care too much, her eyes were locked on his, waiting for his reaction.

"There's coördinates over there, set them all to six." He ordered suddenly, stepping back from her and looking away. "And hurry up!" She did as she was told, she played the good little companion, and moved to set the coördinates.

"We've got Cybermen on the way up." She told him, casting a glance over her shoulder as he moved behind her.

"How many floors down?" He asked, studying the screens that pulled up. She hated the only answer she had to give him, but she told him what the monitors said.

"Just one." He moved to another computer and began typing. It was when the words _Levers operational _emitted from the speakers that his face cracked into a wide smile, the kind of smile he got when he snapped all the pieces together and figured it out.

"That's more like it, bit of a smile." She couldn't help it, and it looked like he was done being angry for now. "The old team" She tossed in, though it was kind of drowned out by his next words.

"Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake." He said as he lifted a large black object and carried it partway across the room. She smiled her own smile as he passed her.

"Which one's Shiver?" She asked him teasingly, and he just grinned his wide, ear to ear grin.

"Oh, I'm Shake." He said it as if it was obvious, handing her the magnaclamp. She staggered slightly under its weight for a second before mimicking his actions in placing it against the wall. "Push the red button." He instructed, and she did, knowing what exactly these were going to do. "When it starts just hold on tight. Shouldn't be to bad for us," He was speaking quickly now, and there was no doubt in her mind that Daleks were coming at them like crazy. "But the Daleks and the Cybermen are steeped in Void Stuff." They both grabbed hold of the levers, and he glanced to her. "You ready?" Her eyes flicked as she saw motion not too far ahead of her.

"So are they.." Was all she could manage as she looked on in horror as four Daleks approached a window.

"Let's do it!" He yelled, pushing up on his lever, and she did the same before they both ran and linked their arms around the magnaclamps attached to the wall. Daleks began to be pulled into the light that opened up on the wall, the same way the Cybermen came in, and she heard The Doctor yell something, but she couldn't be sure what it was. She smiled, everything seemed to be going as he had planned, and held on. She should've known better. There was a spark and the sound of the speakers saying _Offline _and then the lever that The Doctor had set was drifting the wrong way.

She watched in absolute horror as he stretched for the lever, even letting go of the magnaclamp in order to pull it back into position. "I've gotta get it upright!" He yelled, pulling desperately on the lever. Slowly but steadily the lever slid back into place, and she dared to feel relief.

"Doctor, hold on!" She managed to yell over the _whoosh_ing sound of countless Daleks and Cybermen being sucked into the Void as the pull increased once more, leaving The Doctor clinging to the lever for dear life. "Hold on!" She yelled again, well aware that his fingers were starting to slip. And then he was flying toward the wall that would suck him into the place most species call Hell, and all she could do was let out a wordless scream as he fell away from her.

There was a flash of a teleporter, and she couldn't tell who it was that grabbed The Doctor around the middle, all she knew was now two people were being pulled toward the Void. He gave her one last look, and she thought of all the things she never said, and that she knew she never could now as the pair disappeared in what was probably the last of the teleport flashes.

Then the hole healed itself, just like The Doctor said it would, and the light started to fade as she stared at the distorted wall. The computers announced _Systems closed _and the pull toward the far wall stopped, yet she still clung to the magnaclamp for a moment. Finally she regained feeling over her body and she found herself walking toward the wall. She leaned forward, her cheek and hand pressed against the wall, as if it was just a normal wall, and he was just on the other side. For a moment she felt a warmth against her skin, much like if he were doing the same, and she pressed herself closer against the white paint, clinging to the memory of him.

Then the warmth was gone, and she couldn't cry. She knew she should've been crying, screaming, sobbing, but instead her body had betrayed her and she'd just gone completely numb. She pulled away from the wall and turned, walking away, her body rigid and her eyes focused on something that wasn't really there as she left the Ghost Shift room. It was in this rigid, numb state that she barely found her way back to the TARDIS, whose metal grating and control panel literally trembled with the force of the ship's 'sobs' as she mourned her thief. She staggered to her room, and sat on the edge of her bed nearly all night, and still, no tears come.

It was actually almost three weeks before she actually cried, and when she did, something inside her broke. She wasn't sure how long it was before she could breathe properly, but after she had cried herself out, she dragged herself out of her room to the bathroom and showers. She hadn't left the safety and comfort of the TARDIS since what was now being called The Battle of Canary Wharf. In clean clothes and much more clean herself, she could finally think, and once she could, she was faced with the debilitating question of _what now? _She supposed she'd have to get a job again and a flat. It was as she thought about doing this that the TARDIS interrupted her.

_Little Wolf... I've lost my thief, I cannot bear to lose my cub as well. _

She gave a teary smile at that, stroking the side of the console, much like... no. Not yet, she wasn't ready to think of it- him yet. "I know, and I don't want to lose you either, but I haven't got much of a choice have I?" The TARDIS gave a small rumble, and she chuckled darkly in response, as the old girl replied.

_I could teach you, Little Wolf. I could teach you the ways of the Time Lords, the ways of my thief, and we could continue, the TARDIS and her Rose, all across the vast spaces for all eternity. _The words held considerable impact on Rose, and she had to fight down a bitter laugh.

"There's the problem see? I can't be for all eternity, as _he _was always pointing out. Us humans, we don't tend to last too long." The TARDIS gave a little indignant huffing noise, to which Rose returned a short, bark-like laugh that didn't seem to belong to her. "Oi! What was that for?" She asked.

_You looked into my heart, Little One, you looked into Time itself and survived, all to save my thief. You were willing to give your life to save Time's protector, and for that Time has gifted you. For saving my thief, I gifted you both. Perhaps now it will become more of a curse._

"What?" Rose barely managed to choke out, trying to comprehend what she was pretty sure the TARDIS was now telling her. Said TARDIS churred in something close to sad laughter.

_You must be careful among those of Earth, Little Wolf, for since you took Time into you, you have been changing. My thief was not to be the last of his kind for long, but soon you will be. _Rose's mouth hung open in complete shock as the words began to sink in.

"Are you... You're saying..."

_Yes, my cub, the changes are almost completed. Within a few weeks, you will be the last Time Lady. _

* * *

And so they set to work, The TARDIS teaching Rose the things she needed to know in order to be prepared for the future, past, present, wherever it was they decided to go. They spent about four months just drifting through the Vortex, getting more acquainted with each other, though they both knew this time of resting was for Rose's benefit. As she got nearer to the most drastic physiological change, what had started with some bodily discomfort had turned into almost constant agony as each cell in her body slowly rewrote itself. It was much like a regeneration, except stretched out in the tortuous length of about sixteen weeks.

As she healed and the pain receded, Rose found herself murmuring to the console, talking quietly to the TARDIS as she learned more about how she worked. (It was difficult, with the TARDIS shamelessly sending sparks showering everywhere when she did something wrong.) That was when the TARDIS started what Rose called 'Time Lord boot-camp'.

After a long day of being taught of Gallifrey and how to properly take care of and fix the TARDIS, Rose would usually retire to her room, which had changed considerably, where usually there would be a book on some sort of civilization or historical event on her pillow. If she hadn't noticed any changes in her mind and body before, she did now. She didn't sleep nearly as much as she used to, she could usually go about five or six days on about two hours, and she spent a lot of the time that she used to spend sleeping reading or tinkering on the TARDIS. (Though she still kept an eye out for flying sparks.) While she used to sometimes have trouble learning things, she now soaked them up like a sponge, her thinking was quicker and she almost always felt like she had an abundance of energy.

While most of the changes were good, there was one thing that hurt in a way she never expected to hurt. There was this small space at the back of her mind, it felt like there should be something there, some_body _rather, the mental voice of others, but it was silent. Whenever she dwelled on it, it almost crushed her with a debilitating loneliness.

Even more time passed in the TARDIS, and the need for adventure began to gnaw at Rose, but there were two more things the TARDIS needed her to do before she would allow anything. The first one was relatively simple, considering her new intellect, and her very own Sonic Screwdriver was completed in about two days time. It was similar to The Doctor's old one, except it was made of a blackish metal alloy, and rather than blue, the tip glowed dark red.

The second task, however, would be a bit more tricky- Learning to properly pilot the TARDIS. They began by travelling in space only, moving from London to Ireland and back a few times, before going other places around Earth, tweaking and improving her flying skill before doing a few interplanetary trips. They never went exploring, they just bounced about while her abilities improved. Travelling in space was easy enough, but it got rougher when it came to travelling in Time.

It had been nearly two years since The Doctor had been taken to another Universe when the TARDIS finally decided Rose was ready and able to start going out and saving the world like her thief had, but there was something the two of them needed to do first.

"I'm going to try to at least get a message through to him." She said aloud one day. She often spoke out loud to the TARDIS, lack of any- dare she say it- human company left her with talking to her ship as the only other option. And yes, Rose now thought of the TARDIS as her ship, just as the TARDIS thought of Rose as her cub, they had lived, and grown, and grieved together, and they held a nearly constant mental link to each other.

_You can try, my cub, I would like nothing more than to assure my thief, but you know just as I do that it may not be possible. _

"I know." She admitted, "But I have to try." And with that she started looking, searching desperately for any weak spot in the walls of the universe. She was close to giving up when she finally found it. Guiding the TARDIS as close as she dared without shattering the universes, travelling back in time so it had only been a few weeks for The Doctor, before turning to the TARDIS for help. "I need to get him to hear me, old girl, but I don't know where he'll be. Could you help me reach him telepathically?"

_Of course, my Little Wolf. _Came the reply, and Rose stroked the console affectionately.

"Thanks, you beautiful thing, you." It drained the both of them, but they finally got the message through, or so it seemed. It was the TARDIS though, that pointed out that they would need another source of power if they were going to get a real transmission through, they were both exhausted just from sending a brief set of instructions, let alone a visible message. It was then that the TARDIS found a suitable supernova to use for power, and they got ready.

* * *

"He's here. Ready girl?" The TARDIS hummed beneath her, and she smiled. "Alright. Let's do this." The engines _wooshed_ with a familiar sound, and she could see him. He looked kind of translucent, like a ghost, but she didn't say anything. For him it had only been a few weeks. For her it had been nearly three years, and she was just thrilled that she could see him. He saw her too apparently, because he turned, and his face split into a smile.

"Rose.." He breathed, like he didn't dare believe it, and she couldn't blame him. "Where are you?" he asked curiously, and she couldn't hide her genuine smile now.

"The TARDIS, where else would I be?" She asked him teasingly as he walked closer. "I managed to find a tiny little spot in the Universe left, and it's just about to close." She said sadly, of course it wouldn't last much longer. "You have no idea how much power it's taking to send you this projection of me." She said with a weak laugh, smiling her tongue between her teeth smile. "I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye." She saw pain flash across his face, and she felt sure it was mirrored on her own.

"You're all pale, kind of like a ghost." He said it through weak laugher, because in all honesty he wasn't quite sure that she wasn't a ghost.

"Gimme a tic.." She murmured, pulling her Sonic Screwdriver from her pocket and pointing it at a part of the TARDIS console. His form solidified before her, and she hoped hers did too. He was within touching distance now, and she was fairly positive he knew that she couldn't touch him, or vice versa. It hurt even more that they were this close and couldn't touch. Then she heared the voice of Jackie Tyler, and for the first time she noticed her mother, Mickey, and her sort-of father a few feet behind The Doctor.

"Can't you come through properly?" her mother asked, voice flooding over with hope. It broke her heart (heart_s_) to shake her head 'no.'

"The whole thing would fracture.." She explained, then added for emphasis "Two universes would collapse."

"So?" This time it was Mickey, and she couldn't help but laugh softly ever so much at that.

"Where are we?" She asked, looking around. All she could tell was that it was a beach, and judging from her mother and Mickey's clothing, it was pretty cold out. "Where did it come out on this end?" Naturally it was The Doctor who answered.

"We're in Norway. A place called Dårlig Ulv Stranden" She blinked in shock. For some reason the words stirred something deep within her, like they were familer. "Dårlig.." He mused thoughtfully, his eyes moving away for a second to scan the place where the water met the sand. "It's Norwegian for 'bad'"

"Even saying goodbye you have to be all smart huh?"

"The name translates to Bad Wolf Bay." She silenced, giving him a small smile. The fact that those three words were still following them seemed ironic, even a little bit redundant, but it was nice. Familiar. Then he frowned, and she saw pain anew. "How long has it been for you?" He asked, and it's like he knew, but it's no use lying.

"A while." She answered vaguely, and he seemed to know that that is all he was going to get, so he moved onto another question.

"How long have we got?"

"Bout two more minutes.." She said softly, her eyes flicking to the watch she kept on her wrist, mainly out of habit.

"I always knew I'd have to say goodbye to you at some point.. but now that I have to, I can't think of a damn thing to say!" He said with a sad laugh, looking down, not meeting her gaze, and all she wanted to do is run her fingers under his chin and pull him up to look at her, but she couldn't. So she tried a joke.

"So, you'll be having fun with Mr. Mickey then?" And that elicited a chuckle from him.

"Yeah, just me, Mickey, Pete, and Jackie Tyler.. what could go wrong?"

"And the baby!" Jackie threw in, and noticing her daughters wide eyes, she nodded in affirmation. "'Bout six months time, there's gonna be a new little Tyler running about."

"Who will hear countless bedtime stories of her big sister and The Doctor." Pete chimed in helpfully.

"Me trying to survive around a pregnant Jackie Tyler... Oohh this should be fun. Next time you see me Rose, I'll probably have been slapped into regeneration."

"Doctor.." She said quietly. He ought to have known better than anyone else that there would be no 'Next time you see me.' But his name is all she had to say, before he sighed a tired sigh, and looked at her.

"I know Rose... I know.. But let me hope." She nodded in understanding, and he gave a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Hey, you're looking at one of the commanding officers of this Universe's Torchwood London." She tried to smile in return, though she failed miserably.

"Still protecting Earth then, huh?" She teased.

"Nah, it's more of a habit by now. But Rose, there is something I need you do for me."

"Yes?"

"Live an ordinary life, day at a time, Have the big adventure I can't. Make it brilliant, Rose. Make it fantastic." It hurt her to lie to him, it physically hurt her deep down in her chest, so she didn't say yes, she just gave him a gentle smile, similar to the kind his ninth self gave her when something was happening that she didn't understand. :"By my reckoning, got about thirty seconds left." He said quietly, like he didn't want to say it at all.

"Mum.. Mickey... Dad.." She spoke louder now, trying to hold onto herself and stay strong. It wasn't working. Tears worked their way down her face. "I'm going to miss you.. so much.." They responded with tears and nods and assurances that they would miss her too but never forget her. She tried to believe it before turning to face The Doctor, who looked like he himself was on the brink of tears. "I... I love you.." She barely managed to choke out.

"Quite right, too.." He chuckled weakly in response. "And I guess if it's my last chance to say it..." Another pause, and she knew what would happen before it did. "Rose Tyler..."

And then she was alone, in the TARDIS. She leaned against the console before she finally just buried her face in her hands and sobbed. And the TARDIS cried with her, and the two wept for the man they loved, comforting each other for a long moment. It seemed like an impossibly short amount of time before Rose knew she had to pilot her away from the supernova. As she took her hands away from the controls, she saw the impossible. A redheaded bride, standing in the TARDIS.

"What?" The woman gave a sound kind of like a squeak as her mouth popped open in evident shock. _"What?" _She repeated, incredulous.

"Who are you?"

"B-but.."

"Where am I?"

_"What?"_

"What the hell is this place?!" She demanded, anger growing in her features.

_"What!?" _

* * *

**So. What do we think? Worth continuing? Please let me know so I can figure out if I want to put more effort into continuing this. **


	2. Of Anger and Confusion

**A/N: Hey guys, so here's the first chapter. So I've decided that each chapter will have one quote that's about stars or is relatively space-y, either chosen by me or submitted by one of you lovely readers. Each episode will have about three chapters, because I'm psychotic and detailed, with the possible exception of Blink(Not much to put there) and 42 (Because it is the only episode of Doctor Who that has ever bored me) though I might make an exception on the latter if you really want me to. I hope I got Rose into her own character, if I didn't, tell me, and I'll try to make her more Rose-ish, because she's her on character and while she's like The Doctor, she's her own person. **

**Disclaimer: All rights go to BBC. I own nothing. **

* * *

_"Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward." _  
_― E.E. Cummings_

_"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."_

_― Marcus Aurelius_

* * *

"What?" The woman gave a sound kind of like a squeak as her mouth pops open in evident shock. "What?" She repeated, incredulous.

"Who are you?"

"B-but.."

"Where am I?"

"What?"

"What the hell is this place?!" She demanded, anger growing in her features.

"What!?"

* * *

Rose blinked, searching around as if the explanation might be written on the wall somewhere. Her mouth hung open in bewilderment as she struggled to figure out what just happened. "You can't do that! I wasn't... I'm not.. We're in flight! That is- that is physically impossible! How did-?" Despite the fact that her brain capacity was expanded when the rest of her physiology transformed, she still couldn't wrap her head around how this woman was in her TARDIS.

"Tell me where I am. I demand you tell me right now - where am I?" The woman demanded, looking furious, and Rose just tilted her head and told the truth.

"Inside the TARDIS."

"The what?" Anger slowly gave way to confusion, and Rose dared for a moment to be relieved. Confusion, she decided, is better than anger, confusion she could work with.

"The TARDIS." She repeated the words gently, before moving back to the controls, trying to figure out what happened. As expected, she found nothing right away, though she resolved to run more tests as soon as it was all sorted and she got this woman back home.

"The what?" Okay, now Rose was getting a little bit impatient. How many times must she say it? How thick was this woman?

"That TARDIS!" She snapped the words this time, and for a moment she almost regretted it, but apparently the TARDIS was feeling agitated about the woman as well, because she brushed against Rose's mind with slight amusement.

"The _what?_"

"It's called the TARDIS." She explained tersely, flipping a few switches on the console with confidence.

"That's not even a proper word. You're just saying things." Lovely, the woman was getting angry again. At the thought of more yelling, Rose quailed, an irrational fear of the woman welling up, much like the way a child fears making an older sibling mad.

"How did you get in here?" She turned and asked, as if the woman would know. When it doubt, she reasoned with herself, just ask directly from the source. The woman went positively stiff with rage and Rose had to fight the urge to step backwards, away from her.

"Well, obviously, when you kidnaped me. Who was it? Who's paying you? Is it Nerys? Oh, my God, she's finally got me back. This has got Nerys written all over it." Rose just stood there, her eyes moving up and down the woman in complete and utter confusion.

"Who the bloody hell is Nerys?"

"Your best friend." Okay then.. Rose just blinked and returned to fiddling with the controls, piloting the TARDIS toward Earth. A thought seemed to have occurred to the woman, and then she's yelling all over again. "I was halfway up the aisle! I've been waiting all my life for this. I was just seconds away! And then you- I dunno, you drugged me or something!" The bride followed Rose around the console, ranting and raving as she went. Rose finally rounded on her, her angry defense almost sounding exasperated.

"I haven't done anything! I don't even know how you got in here! It shouldn't be possible!"

"We're having the police on you! Me and my husband - as soon as he is my husband - we're gonna sue the living backside off ya!" Rose didn't reply, she just turned back to the controls, fiddling and piloting toward Earth. Based on the clothing and bit of jewelry, she assumed the woman from the twenty-first century. Unfortunately, she was so wrapped up in thinking about when to take the woman back to, she didn't notice until it was too late the fact that the woman was reaching for the TARDIS doors.

"No! No wait! Don't..!" But it was too late, the woman had the doors open and she just stood there, staring in shock. Rose sauntered up behind her and leaned against the railing on the ramp. "We're in space. Outer space, and this is... well.. This is my space ship, she's called the TARDIS."

"How are we breathing?" The woman sounded breathless and surprised, but at least it seemed that the anger was fading, for now anyway. Though considering that in the past few minutes Rose had learned that this woman's emotions change faster that the speed of light.

"The TARDIS is protecting us." She explained, making her turn toward Rose, and for a brief second she thought she saw acceptance and surprise, followed by confusion.

"Who _are _you?" She asked, and Rose was brought up short for a moment. Should she answer with the truth? The Doctor never used his real name, was there a reason for that? Maybe to make sure nobody could find and hurt those he cared about.. But really, who did she even have left that she needed to worry about?

"My name's Rose. You?"

"Donna."

"Human, right?" She had to ask, because she knew well there were other species that look human, but aren't. (A small voice with a northern accent piped up in her head that the other species technically look like Time Lords and Ladies since they were there first.)

"Yeah. Is that optional?" She looked horrified for a moment, and it almost made Rose want to laugh with the absurdity.

"With me, yep." She popped the 'p' and flashed a cheeky grin.

"You're an alien?"

"Am now, yeah." Rose couldn't decide if she liked the shocked look on Donna's face or not. Either way, she knew she wasn't likely to go around telling people she was an alien right and left.

"It's freezing with the doors open." Donna stated matter-of-factly, and it made Rose smile just a bit as she pushed them closed and returned to the console.

"But I don't understand it and I understand just about everything now! This- this cannot happen! Human technology is nowhere advanced enough to lock onto anything like the TARDIS, not by a really long shot. It must be..." And suddenly she became entirely still, looking down onto the console but not saying a word, her face darkening as she slipped into deep thought. "This doesn't make any sense! If anything, the extrapolator shielding that Jack put up should keep everything out!" Donna was clearly confused as Rose talked, but she seemed willing enough to wait for the Rose to spell it out for her. "It's just not possible. Some sort of temporal shift?" She stopped suddenly, turning and looking at Donna with scrutinizing eyes. "You're not by any chance a Time Agent are you?" Whatever she planned to say after that was gone after a sharp smack across the face from the redhead.

"What was that for!" She yelped in confusion, taking a step away from the obviously psychotic ginger.

"Take me back to Earth!"

"Fine!" She snapped irritably, "Not like I want you here anyway. Where's the wedding?"

"Saint Mary's, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, the Solar System." Rose wanted to tell her that she doesn't need to spell it out, that just saying 'Earth' would do perfectly fine, but she didn't, she just kept quiet and pressed a few buttons.

"I _knew it!_" Rose glanced up to see Donna holding one of The Doctor's coats, the very one they had spread out and laid down on back at New Earth. Just the sight of it made her chest tighten painfully, making it almost difficult to breathe. "How many people have you and your little Martian friends abducted!?"

"That... That belongs to a good friend of mine." She barely managed to choke out the words, and they still grated upon her throat.

"Where is he then? Popped out for a space walk?" Rose recoiled as if she's been slapped, before looking down and fighting the tears that threaten to spill over. The TARDIS hummed her discontent as well.

"He's gone.. He's gone now."

"Gone where!?" Donna either didn't know or care how much this hurt, so she demanded further information.

"I...I've lost him."

"Well you can hurry up and lose me!" She paused, seeming to realize that she hit a nerve. "What do you mean, lost?" She asked, gentler this time. Rose stiffened and walked forward, jerking his jacket out of Donna's hand, taking it and hanging it in it's proper place along the coral where he always kept it. Before she turned back to Donna, she paused, wiping the heel of her hand against her cheek, pushing away the single tear that managed to escape.

"Right. Chiswick." She muttered, moving back to the controls. "We wouldn't want you to be late." She grumbled in a sarcastic joke with herself.

* * *

"I said 'Saint Mary's!' What sort of Martian are you? Where's this?" Donna demanded, as Rose gently stroked the exterior to the TARDIS, murmuring gentle words under her breath, concern across her features.

"Something's wrong with her.." She mumbled, mainly to herself, but of course the woman heard, and of course she had to roll her eyes. "It's like she's recallibrating or something. I'm not really sure." And with that she was racing right back into the console room, her fingers flying over the controls as she thought out loud. "She's.. digesting.." Rose picked up her hand and placed it gently upon the Rotor, smiling warmly. "Hey you pretty thing you, what've you eaten? What's wrong?" She sighed and returned her attention to the human. "Donna? I don't mean to sound insensitive or anything, I really don't, but you've really gotta think. Is there anything that might've caused this? Anything you might've done? Any sort of alien contact? I mean, have you... have you seen lights in the sky? Or... did you touch something? Something- something different? Something out of place? Something made out of a sort of metal or... Who're you getting married to?" She'd forgotten about the fact that Donna could now see the outside of the TARDIS, so she missed the whole 'It's bigger on the inside' look.

Donna paced around the outside of the TARDIS in utter shock that the inside it bigger than the outside, before she poked her head back in and staring around, trying to wrap her mind around the impossible thing in front of her. When it really seemed to sink in, she stumbled backwards, hand over her mouth.

"Are you sure he's human? He's not a bit overweight with a zip around his forehead, is he?" She just about had to ask, maybe it was another of the Slitheen family. When she turned around though, Donna had taken off running, her white dress billowing out behind her as she did so. Rose easily caught up wearing trainers, blue jeans, and a t-shirt, and fell into step beside her.

"Donna.." She started, but Donna was having none of it.

"I just want to go to the church, and get married. It's all I want." It sounded almost like she was talking to herself for a second, and Rose momentarily questioned the woman's sanity for about the seventieth time in the past ten minutes.

"Donna, please come back to the TARDIS. I just want to make sure you're safe, then I'll get you back to your family, I swear it." She pleaded gently, wondering if reaching out and grabbing her arm would result in another slap. She knows it probably would, so she didn't.

"No flippin' way Blondie! That box is too weird!"

"It's just.. bigger on the inside.. that's all."

"Oh, that's _all!"_ She laughed sarcastically, casting a nervous glance to her watch. "Ten past three. I'm gonna miss it."

"You can always phone them. Tell them where you are, that you might be a little late, tell 'em not to worry." Rose offered, wondering why the woman hadn't done that before, it seemed like the obvious thing to do. She remembered how glad her mother always was when she- No. Not that, not now.

"How do I do that?" Rose blinked, didn't this woman know how to use a phone?

"You don't have a mobile?" She asked incredulously.

"I'm in my wedding dress. It doesn't have pockets. Who has pockets? Have you ever seen a bride with pockets? When I went to my fitting, do you think I said "Alison, the one thing I forgot to say is give me pockets"?!" Rose blinked in surprise and gave Donna another once over with her eyes.  
"... This man you're marrying - what's his name?"

"Lance." Donna's voice almost turned to goo at the name, and it almost makes Rose want to roll her eyes, though she dares not for fear of a slap.

"Lance is a very, _very _brave man.." She muttered under her breath. That was obviously a big mistake, because Donna's attitude changed with extreme abruptness.

"Oi! No stupid Martian is gonna stop me from getting married. To hell with you!" And with that, she was running away again, leaving a bewildered Rose standing on the sidewalk.

"I'm- I'm not... I'm... I'm not from Mars..." She muttered weakly before taking off after the bride, whom she was now fairly certain should be institutionalized.

* * *

It was after being thrown out of a taxi for not having any money that Rose really started to wonder how The Doctor didn't lose his mind trying to keep up with things.

"I'll have him! I've got his number. I'll have him. Talk about the Christmas Spirit!" Donna snorted in disgust, sniffing as they make their way off the road and onto the sidewalk. Rose looked up in surprise, shocked that she had missed all the music and decorations earlier.

"It's Christmas?" She asked, looking around brightly.

"Well, duh. Maybe not on Mars, but here it's Christmas Eve." Donna tapped on Rose's arm roughly and pointed to something in the distance. "Phone box!" She exclaimed, rushing towards it with a determination that dared anyone to try and get there first. A thought occurred to Rose, and she tilted her head, looking at the bride-to-be as she started to run.

"Why're you getting married on Christmas Eve?"

"Can't bear it. I hate Christmas. Honeymoon in Morocco. Sunshine - lovely." Rose held the door to the phone box open for Donna as she lifted the phone from the hook. "What's the operator? I've not done this in years. What do you dial? 100?" Yanking the sonic screwdriver out of her jeans pocket she changed the setting and waved it over the primitive machine impatiently.

"Just call the direct."

"What did you do?" Donna's voice demanded, but Rose was looking down the street, elsewhere, and she didn't answer. "Something- Martian. Now, phone. I'll get us some money!" Rose felt conflicted about sonicing the money machine, she hadn't exactly approved of The Doctor doing it, and she didn't necessarily want to do it herself, but they seemed to be running out of options. One incredibly frustrating wait at a cash machine and finally she managed to get back to looking for Donna, who she promptly found yelling at some woman in the street, asking for a tenner. As she neared her, however, her breath caught in her throat as a pair of robotic Santas came into her line of vision. The last time she had seen them, nothing good had happened. She heard Donna yelling something at her, and when she turned to look, she's getting in a taxi- a taxi being driven by a mechanical Santa.

They've gone, and Rose then looked back at the Santa's playing the trumpets. One of them lowered his trumpet ominously, and she felt her stomach twist uncomfortably. Now all three of them were held like weapons. Rose did the only thing she could think of, and it's not surprising it's the only thing she could, it's what she's been doing for years. She turns and runs back in the direction of the TARDIS.

Next in a series of a events that were extremely chaotic, she tried something she never tried before, something she was sure even The Doctor hadn't done. She raced madly around the TARDIS like she was mad, piloting the ship without dematerializing like usual. Sparks flew from the console, illustrating the ship's distaste at being piloted that way. She laughed weakly at the TARDIS's temper, stroking the rotor. "Behave sweetheart... behave.." she murmured comfortingly. Well, for a first outing as a Time Lady this was certainly proving to be eventful.

She began attaching strings and ropes to the console so she could, more or less, operate from the doorway. She staggered over to the doors, a string held tightly between her teeth, and threw it open. Haphazardly, she guided the TARDIS until it was in line with the taxi. It was quite a sight, a giant blue box hovering alongside a taxi on the motor way. Donna just stared at her with wide eyes through the glass, hands pressed against the window. "Open the door!" She yelled, trying desperately to be heard over the roar of care engines and through the glass.

"Do you what?" Donna yelled back, pressing harder against the glass.

"Open the door!" She yelled again, louder the second time. Thankfully, Donna seemed to hear, but she shook her head.

"I can't, it's locked!"

Rose groaned and reached for the sonic again, feeling a rush of gratefulness to the TARDIS who instructed her on how to make it, turning it on and waving it over the door. Obviously it worked, because Donna pulled down on the window, though of course she had to yell probably the most irrelevant thing at the moment.

"Santa's a robot!"

"Donna, open the door!"

"What for?" Seriously? Rose wanted to roll her eyes.

"You've got to jump!"

"I'm not bleedin' jumping, I'm supposed to be getting married!" It seemed that the Santa took that particular second to press the gas pedal to the floor, because the taxi sped up, leaving Rose hanging for a second before she regained her sense of mind and piloted the TARDIS after it. She barely managed to sonic the Santa, disabling it, before she turned to Donna once more.

"Listen to me - you've got to jump. You have to!"

"I'm not jumping on a motor way." Donna argued stubbornly.

"Whatever that thing is, it needs you, and I speak from unpleasant experience when I say this, but whatever it needs you for, it's not good. Now, come on!"

"I'm in my wedding dress!"

"Yes! You look lovely! Just lovely, now come on!" Rose yelled, exasperated, her voice raw from yelling so much. Thankfully, Donna seemed to take it to heart this time, because she opened the door and moved her body in position to leap for the police box.

"I can't do it." And there it was, fear lacing the voice of the loud woman, and for a moment, terror crossed her face. "I can't.."

"Trust me. I know you're scared, but I need you to trust me, Donna." Rose forced her voice to be calm, steady.

"Is that what you said to him? Your friend? The one you lost? Did _he_ trust you?"

"Yes, I think he did. I'm asking you, please. Jump!"

Donna jumped.

* * *

Donna looked at her watch and sighed when she saw it's a few minutes after half past three. As they left the TARDIS, she noticed that Rose had landed them on the roof of some high rise building and was now coughing and spluttering as she tried desperately to extinguish the smoke billowing from the open TARDIS doors. A few minutes later, when the flames had been extinguished, she joined Donna on the edge of the building, slumping down with a final cough.

"The funny thing is, for a spaceship, she doesn't really do that much flying, least not that I've ever seen. We'd better give her a couple of hours, let her rest up some. You all right?" She asked. She hadn't seen any physical injuries, but she knew better than anyone the emotional effect things like this can have on someone, and she didn't go through this hell on her wedding day. Donna just shrugged.

"Doesn't matter."

"Did we miss it?" Though Rose was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

"Yeah."

"Well, you can always book another date...Shouldn't be too hard." She offered, trying to be helpful, but she'd barely had any human contact in almost three years, she was struggling to adapt.

"Course we can."

"Still got the honeymoon to look forward to, though. I've heard that the honeymoon's the best part anyway." She teased lightly, trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

"S'just a holiday now."

"Yeah... yeah... sorry." What she was sorry for, she wasn't really sure, but she felt a deep feeling of responsibility for everything that's happened, though none of it was really her fault. Guess she understood why _he _was always apologizing for things that weren't remotely his fault. Great, now that she was alone she was understanding loads about everyone.

"It's not your fault." Donna replied gently.

"Oh! That's a change." Rose tried to laugh, to sound humorous, but it fell flat.

"Wish we had a time machine. Then we could go back and get it right." Donna's voice was full of longing, and Rose felt another twinge of guilt as she responded.

"Well.. technically speaking the TARDIS _is _a time machine." She saw the hope light up Donna's face, and it was crushing to squash her hopes, but she had to. "I couldn't go back on someone's personal timeline. You know how it works in the movies and stuff. Something really bad would happen, I speak from experience. Oh! You'd better put this on." She pulled a wedding ring-like object from her pocket and pressed it into Donna's palm.

"Oh, do you have to rub it in?" She asked bitterly, looking back toward the skyline.

"Those creatures can trace you. This is a bio-damper. Should keep you hidden. You can keep it on a chain if you'd like, it'll still work just the same." She explained, brushing strands of her naturally dark hair out of her face.

"So, come on then. Robot Santas - what are they for?" Donna asked, her eyes lighting up with a curiosity that Rose has only seen when she opened the front doors to the TARDIS. She thought through her words for a moment before starting her explanation.

"Ah, your basic robo-scavenger. Think about 'em like pilotfish. They stick around the bigger, more dangerous beasts, snatching up the leftovers. In return, they don't get eaten. The Father Christmas stuff is just a disguise. They're trying to blend in. I met them last Christmas." She used the term 'last Christmas' lightly, seeing as it had been almost four years since then, but all the same, she had to fight to not cringe at the memories of a happier holiday.

"Why, what happened then?" Was she serious? How had anybody _not _noticed? A third of the population was on the rooftops for crying out loud!

"... Great big spaceship? Hovering over London? You didn't notice?"

"I had a bit of a hangover." She explained dismissively. Rose returned her eyes to the skyline, scanning over the distant landscape, when she saw the familiar shape of the home she spent almost all her life in not too far off.

"I spent Christmas Day just over there, the Powell Estate. With my family... My friend, he came and we had dinner, wore paper crowns.." She smiled for a second, losing herself in memories. "Still... gone now."

"Your friend... who was he?" Rose either didn't hear or was ignoring her, because she turned and looked at the woman who still wore the wedding dress with renewed interest.

"Question is, what do the pilotfish want with you? And how did you get inside the TARDIS?" She pulled the sonic screwdriver back out of her pocket and flipped through the settings. "What's your job?"

"I'm a secretary."

"May I?" Rose asked, nodding the sonic screwdriver.

"Okay.." Donna permitted, looking slightly wary of the strange device that Rose immediately began moving. The tip glowed red as she waved it up the length of her body, then switched a setting, then did it again repeatedly.

"It's weird, I mean, oh God, you'll slap me for this but, you're not special, you're not powerful, you're not connected, you're not clever, you're not important, relatively speaking anyway.."

"Oi!" Donna barked indignantly, whacking the screwdriver aside. "Enough bleeping me!" It this had any effect on her, Rose didn't show it.

"What kind of secretary?"

"I'm at HC Clements. It's where I met Lance. I was tempting. I mean, it was all a bit posh really. I'd spent the last two years at a double glazing firm. Well, I thought - I'm never gonna fit in here, and then he made me a coffee. I mean, that just doesn't happen. Nobody gets the secretaries a coffee. And Lance - he's the head of HR! He don't need to bother with me! But he was nice, he was funny. And it turns out he thought everyone else was really snotty too. So that's how it started, me and him - one cup of coffee. That was it." Donna looked off toward the sky, a far away look in her eye.

"When was this?"

"Six months ago."

"Bit quick, to get married..." She remarked gently, not condescending or rude, just quiet.

"Well... he insisted, and he nagged... and he nagged me... And he just wore me down and then finally, I just gave in."  
"What does exactly HC Clements do?"

"Oh, security systems, you know... entry codes, ID cards - that sort of thing." Donna explained, waving a hand dismissively. "If you ask me, it's a posh name for locksmiths."

"Keys..." She mumbled, musing around the word for a long moment.

"Anyway, enough of my CV. Come on, it's time to face the consequences. Oh, this is gonna be so shaming. You can do the explaining, Martian-girl."

"I'm not from Mars." Donna nodded, but Rose seriously doubted that that was the last time she'd be called a Martian. She stood and offered a hand to the human, helping her to her feet.

"Oh, I had this great big reception all planned. Everyone's gonna be heartbroken."

* * *

**Whelp.. there it is. Leave a review if you love me and if you have a quote you wanna suggest for the opening of a future chapter, leave it in a review or PM me. *Offers cookies* Cause I loves chu!**


	3. Parties, Tapes, and Explainations

**A/N: Heyo! I just wanted to get at least part two up. For the past week I've been updating pretty quickly because I've been on spring break, but I go back to school Tuesday, so it might be awhile before I manage to get all of Smith and Jones (Or I guess in this case Tyler and Jones) up. Hope you guys are enjoying so far, I know I am, and I hope you stick around for the ride. Did you guys hear the news? BBC has confirmed that Billie and David ****_will _**** be returning for the 50th anniversary! I squealed so loud when I heard, my sister thought my wits snapped.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. BBC Has all the rights. 

* * *

_"A star falls from the sky and into your hands. Then it seeps through your veins and swims inside your blood and becomes every part of you. And then you have to put it back into the sky. And it's the most painful thing you'll ever have to do and that you've ever done. But what's yours is yours. Whether it's up in the sky or here in your hands. And one day, it'll fall from the sky and hit you in the head real hard and that time, you won't have to put it back in the sky" _  
_― C. JoyBell C._

* * *

The wedding guests, however, seemed to have taken advantage of the great big reception. Loud Christmas music blared out of speakers at full volume, everyone was dancing, drinking, eating and laughing. Rose and Donna walked in, the latter looking around in shock, seemingly thunderstruck. She folded her arms as a woman spotted her first and froze, with the rest of the room following suit until all is silent and all eyes are on the bride and the blond girl who stood just behind her.

"You had the reception without me?" A man that Rose assumed was Lance stepped forward.

"Donna... what happened to ya?" He asked as he looked at her, but Donna seemed to have not heard, but instead she spoke again, her voice raising a few notches.

"You had the reception without me?" Following the repeated statement there was a long, awkward pause, that was broken by Rose, who smiled with fake cheer and waved.

"Hello! I'm Rose, a friend of Donna's." She said brightly, drawing eyes from all across the room, including Donna's, who turned and looked at her.

"They had the reception without me." She repeated.

"Yeah, I gathered as much." The room nearly fell into silence again when a blond woman from the crowd piped up.

"Well, it was all paid for - why not?"

"Thank you, Nerys." Was Donna's terse reply. Sylvia approached her daughter, a curious look crossing her face, something close to anger.

"Well, what were we supposed to do? I got your silly little message in the end - "I'm on Earth"? Very funny. What the hell happened? How did you do it? I mean, what's the trick because I'd love to know-" It seemed that the entire room decided to start talking at the same time until all Rose and Donna both could hear was an incomprehensible babble of voices. Apparently thinking quickly, Donna simply burst into tears, at which the party-goers anger melted into pity. Lance stepped forward and hugged her and she cried into his shoulder. Everyone burst into applause - and Donna winked at Rose through her fake tears. She couldn't help but to smile back.

The reception party seemed to continue as it had been before, except now Donna joined in with the dancing. Rose stayed quiet, leaning against the bar, finding herself smiling slightly as she watched the party. She then noticed a man with a mobile phone and gestured to borrow it. Thankfully the man seemed to be in a good mood, so he nodded and handed it over. She looked down at the phone before doing a search for H C Clements. Casting a furtive look around the room first, she used her sonic screwdriver to speed the process up - the result being "Sole Prop. TORCHWOOD"

Rose closed the phone and gave it back to the man, memories now flooding back to her, though most left her with an empty feeling that ached. The music got louder as she watched the dancing. Her eyes then fell onto a couple dancing not too far away. The man threw the woman backwards over his arm and she was reminded briefly of the moment on New Earth when she fell into The Doctor's arms after Cassandra left her body. The memory resulted in a pang within her. She swallowed and looked away, her eyes falling on the cameraman in the corner, who was recording the wedding.

She ambled over to the cameraman's side as he put a tape in the camera to show her the footage of Donna vanishing.

"I taped the whole thing - they've all had a look. They said "sell it to You've Been Framed". I said "more like the News". Here we are..." He made small talk as he fast forwarded through the footage, until it got to the part where Donna began to walk down the aisle. He played the tape and Rose watched the camera was zoom in on Donna's face as she seemingly disintegrates into golden particles with a scream.

"What? Play it again?" She asked, staring at the little screen with rapt attention.

"Clever, mind! Good trick, I'll give her that. I was clapping." The cameraman joked as he rewound the tape. Rose watched the video again, brow furrowed incredulously.

"But that looks like..." She paused, concentrating on pulling the name to her mind. When she didn't get it, the TARDIS nudged her mind helpfully, and the words popped into her mind. "Huon Particles!" She called to mind the image of the glowing particles that the TARDIS had taught her about during her two year crash course in being the last Time Lord.

"What's that?" The cameraman asked in curiosity, but she didn't hear, she just talked quietly to herself, thinking things through.

"But..That's impossible, that's... ancient! Huon energy doesn't exist anymore, according to every book I've read it hasn't for billions of years! So old that..." Her eyes were suddenly drawn the ring/biodamper she earlier gave to Donna. "... it's not about to be hidden by a biodamper.." She ran toward a window, and sure enough, right outside the glass were two Santas making their way toward the house. She turned and ran for Donna, calling her name as she did. "They've found you." She told her, breathless.

"But you said I was safe." Donna argued back, of course she argued, she couldn't just listen.

"The biodamper doesn't work, not on that type of energy. We've got to get everyone out. Now!" Donna's eyes swept the crowd, skimming over every face, and when she spoke her voice was like a whisper.

"Oh, my God - it's all my family..."

"Out the back door!" She yelled, giving Donna a good shove, and they started out the back door, only to come face-to-mask with two of the Santas."Maybe not..." They ran back inside, while Rose darted over to another window to see two more Santas.

"We're trapped.."

The Santas held some kind of remote control, which they raise. Rose looked at the Christmas trees in the middle of the room in absolute horror, remembering the majority of her house being destroyed and everyone almost dying on that Christmas so long ago. "Christmas trees.." She said quietly.

"What about them?"

"They're dangerous." She muttered, running into the crowd, yelling a warning that almost nobody heeded. "Get away from the trees!" Thankfully, at least Donna seemed to believe her, because a few seconds later, the loud womans voice joined her own.  
"Don't touch the trees!"

"Get away from the Christmas trees, everyone get away from them!" Sylvia, Donna's mother, looked bored, though she glared at Rose like she was completely mad.

"Oh, for God's sakes, the girl's an idiot! Why? What's a Christmas tree gonna... oh!" She trailed off as she observed the baubles float away from the tree in some sort of odd dance. Rose watched them mistrustfully as they hovered above everyone's head. Everyone chattered exitedly about what they thought was some sort of show until the baubles started dive-bombing m and causing small explosions. This triggered screaming and running for cover. Donna pulled Lance down to hide under a table with her as Rose stood stone still, trying to think of a way she could immobilize them all at once. She needed something that could amplify the sonic.. amplify.. amp! The pieces snapped together as Rose dashed to the DJs stand while the Santas lined on up on the other side of the room. God she hopes this works.

She doesn't say anything, she doesn't use sarcasm or jokes to make her assault on them humorous, like The Doctor would've, instead she lunged forward in silence, sticking her sonic screwdriver next to the amplifiers, causing them to emit a horrible, high-pitched screeching sound. Nearly everyone covered their ears and the Santas trembled until they fell into pieces. She moved the screwdriver and ran to examine the mechanics of the Santas as people began to get up off the floor.

Rose picked up the consoles that the Santas were using, examining it closely. "Look at that - remote control for the decorations, like a wireless video game remote." She showed Donna the hand held consoles "Well.. looky, looky there.. There's a second remote control for the robots themselves." She rolled the head of one in her hand, thinking hard. "They're not scavengers anymore. Someone's controlling these things.. Making them do their bidding." Donna's voice pulled her out of her thoughts about what could be controlling the Santas.

"Never mind all that, you're real smart and all.. but people have been hurt."

"Nah, they wanted you alive, look" she threw her a bauble. "They're not active now."

"All I'm saying - you could help." Rose lifted the head and put it to hear ear, listening for a faint beeping noise. She stood and looked at Donna, something like sadness in her eyes.

"Donna, I want to help them, I really do, but I can't right now. I've got think of the bigger picture... There's still a signal, I can trace it, find whoever's controlling them, and get this all sorted, but I can't do any of that If I'm here treating injured people." And with that, she moved off, headed outside. Donna made to follow her when the voice of her mother stopped her. She sounded scared.

"Donna.. Who is she?" She had no answer for her, so she simply followed Rose, leaving her mother and Lance staring after her with wide eyes.

Donna followed Rose outside where she stood, scanning the helmet with her sonic screwdriver. "There's someone behind this, directing the pilot fish." She said, though she sounded more like she was talking to just herself.

"But why is it me? What have I done?" Donna asked, but if Rose heard, she wasn't answering.

"If we find the controller, we'll find that out. Oh!" She raised her sonic screwdriver into the air, and Donna thought briefly about making a comment about how incredibly corny it looks, but Rose said something else, in an ominous voice that made her shiver slightly. "It's up there. Something in the sky." She waved the sonic for a few more minutes, before she sighed and looked down, disappointment spreading across her face. "I've lost the signal - Donna, we've got to get to your office, H C Clements. I think that's where it all started. You said your fiance's name is Lance?"

"Yeah.."  
"Could he give us a ride to work?" She asked with a cheeky grin.

"Yeah, sure."

* * *

Rose, Donna and Lance arrived at H C Clements not five minutes later, crashing through the front doors then into Donna's office. The first thing Rose did is dash to a computer, the sonic in her hand and pointed at the monitor in about four seconds flat.

"This might just be a locksmiths, but H C Clements was brought up twenty three years ago by the Torchwood Institute." She explained rapidly, her fingers rapping quickly along the keys of the keyboard.

"Who are they?" Donna asked curiously.

"They were idiots who used technology they didn't understand to try and play God. They were behind the battle of Canary Wharf." The last two words stung as they left her mouth, but they are followed by a blank silence from Donna, so she continued, looking for the hint of recognition. "...Cyberman in just about every house..?" She just looked at her inquiringly. "The skies full of bloody Daleks!"

"Oh, I was in Spain." She replied, as if that explained everything.

"Pretty sure they had Cybermen in Spain..."

"Scuba diving." Rose just blinked at that, shocked.

"You know that big picture I told you about earlier, Donna?" She asked. Donna nodded. "You keep missing it." She darted over to another computer. "Torchwood was destroyed, that's been made sure of, but H C Clements stayed in business.. And I think.. well actually I'm pretty sure.. that someone else came in and took over." She whacked the computer harshly on the side. "the operation."

"But what do they want with me?" Donna inquired for about the fifth time that day. Finally Rose seemed to have some sort of answer for her.

"Somehow you've been dosed with Huon energy. And that's a problem because Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark times, a _really _long time ago. The only place you'd find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS. See? That's what happened. It's kind of like you and the TARDIS are like two bits of metal. They're fine until you give one bit a good charge, and then you have one bit acting as a magnet, pulling the other bit in. So, you were given a charge and consequently you were pulled inside the TARDIS." Donna blinked before asking weakly.

"I'm basically a fridge magnet?" Rose smiled an ear to ear smile.

"Not really.. oh whatever.. sure." She said. "Lance? What was H C Clements working on? Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?"

"I don't know, I'm in charge of personnel. I wasn't project manager." He replied defensively, not meeting her gaze. Meanwhile Rose held her sonic screwdriver to the screen, pulling up a page with a 3D building plan.

"Why am I even explaining myself? What the hell are we talking about?" Lance exclaimed, growing angry.

"They make keys, that's the point. And look at this..." She motioned closer to the map on the screen. "We're on the third floor."

* * *

The unlikely trio waited for the lift to come down to their floor. While they waited, Rose started talking.

"Underneath reception, there's a basement, yes?" The doors pinged open and they went inside as Rose took a look at the controls. "Then how come when you look on the lift, there's a button marked 'lower basement'? There's a whole floor which doesn't exist on the official plans. So what's down there, then?" The excitement grew in the pit of her stomach, happiness bubbled up in her, the and feeling of adventure coursed through her veins.

"Are you telling me this building's got a secret floor?" Lance asked dubiously, eyeing her.

"Nope." She replied with a wide grin. "I'm _showing _you this building's got a secret floor."

"It needs a key." Donna pointed out, matter-of-factly.

"Does it really now?" Was all Rose said as she soniced the keyhole. "Right then, thanks you two, I can handle this - see you later." She laughs a false laugh, no intention of seeing them later really.

"No chance, Martian. You're the girl who keeps saving my life, I ain't letting you out of my sight." Donna argued, then joined her in the lift. Rose smiled, glad for the company.

"Going down."

"Lance?" Donna said pointedly, clearly waiting for him.

"M- Maybe I should go to the police." He tried, but Donna was having none of it. She gave him a glare and barked.

"Inside." Needless to say Lance meekly joined them in the lift. Rose laughed. The doors closed and they began to descend. It made a noise when it finally reached the lower basement and Rose, Donna and Lance stepped out into a long, dark, dank corridor. The lighting was dim and the walls are bathed in a greenish light.

"Where are we? Well, what goes on down here?" Rose grinned.

"Let's find out..." Donna suggested, tilting her head.

"Do you think Mr. Clements knows about this place?" Both humans looked to Rose, who looked mildly distracted.

"The mysterious H C Clements? I think he's part of it." They soon came to a door labeled "Torchwood - authorised personnel only", and Rose turned the wheel that opened the door to reveal a ladder. Rose then peered upwards. "Wait here. Just need to get my bearings. Don't," She took a second to point at each of them with a stern expression, "do anything." And she started up the ladder. Donna's voice called out below her.

"You'd better come back." She 'threatened'. Rose barked a laugh.

"I couldn't get rid of you if I tried." At this Donna smiled as she and Lance watched Rose climb the ladder. Lance looked to Donna, before talking quietly to her.

"Donna... have you thought about this? Properly? I mean, this is serious! What the hell are we gonna do?" Donna obviously wasn't listening fully, because the only reply she came up with is;  
"Oh, I thought July." She then smiled brightly and turned her attention back to the girl climbing the ladder.

Rose finally reached the top of the ladder where she was confronted with the underside of a manhole. She opened it after a brief balance struggle and climbed out into daylight - surprised to see that she was overlooking the Thames Flood barrier. She smiled and climbed back down, ignoring the last two rungs as she jumped to the concrete floor beneath her. "Thames flood barrier! Right on top of us. Torchwood snuck in and built this place underneath. Can't say I'm surprised, mind you."

"What, there's like a secret base hidden underneath a major London landmark?" Donna asked as if it was the most outlandish idea ever. Rose laughed.

"I know! Unheard of."

Just a few moments later, they entered some kind of laboratory, full of massive test tubes bubbling away and chemistry equipment. Rose recognized many-a-things from _his _labs, and it made her a little bit home-sick for the TARDIS, but it was exiting all the same.

She darted over to one of the bubbling tubes and tapped it with her forefinger. "Brilliant. They've been manufacturing Huon particles. In case my people got rid of Huons, they unraveled the atomic structure. It's _fantastic._" She thought she probably just quoted an exact line from one of the few remaining Gallifreyan books, but she really care to be honest. She lost herself in thought for a second before Lance interrupted.

"Your people? Who are they? What company do you represent?" She has to fight the urge to laugh at that.

"Oh, bit of a freelancer. But this lot are rebuilding them. They've been using the river! Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they've got the end result - Huon particles in liquid form." She picked up a small test tube full of the Huon particles.

"And that's what's inside me?" Donna asked, looking concerned. Rose gently turned a knob at the top of the test tube, making the contents glow gold - and Donna with them. Said human screamed in horror.

"Oh, my God!" Rose nodded, getting a bit exited as she snaps the pieces of the grand puzzle together in her head.

"Because the particles are inert - they need something living to catalyze inside and that's you. Saturate the body and then... The wedding! Yes, so you're getting married, that's it! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle and oh, your body's a battleground. There's like a mini-chemical war inside, adrenaline, acetylcholine, endorphins, you name it It's like you're like a walking oven! A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away, the particles reach boiling point, There's your charge!" She'd gotten quite exited as she said all this, pacing up and down and jumping occasionally. She had once thought that being hyperactive when piecing something together was just because of the Doctor's personality, but since she underwent the physiological change, figuring things out just gave her such a rush, it made her wonder how she didn't used to always be this way.

Donna looks upset, but it's not until she spoke that Rose knew why. She chalked that up to lack of social skills and almost no interaction for a long time. "Are you enjoying this?" She demanded, looking a bit hurt. Rose slumped in on herself a bit, looking a little ashamed. Donna walked toward her, clearly struggling to think straight in her panic.

"Right, just tell me - these particles, are they dangerous? Am I safe?"

"Yep!" She replied, unconvincingly, and it was insanely obvious that Donna didn't believe her.

"Rose... if your lot got rid of Huon particles... why did they do that?" And then there's the question that Rose _really _didn't want to answer. But she answered, her voice gentle, as soothing as she thinks she can make it, because she had no idea how to tell somebody that kind of thing.

"Because they were deadly." Donna took a staggering step backwards.

"Oh, my God.." She murmured, shaking in her fear.

"I'll sort it out, Donna. Whatever's been done to you, I'll reverse it. I'm not about to lose someone else." Rose assured her, though a small part of it was for herself. A hissing voice rang out of nowhere, and many things happened at once.

"Oh, she is long since lost. One of the walls slides upwards to reveal a secret chamber with an enormous round hole in the floor. I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe... until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken!"

The walls of the chamber were suddenly lined with the armed robots wearing black hoods. Rose blinked, looking down into a cavernous hole in the middle of the room before she let loose a low whistle.

"Someone's been digging... oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?"

"Down and down, all the way to the center of the Earth!" The voice replied.

"Really? Seriously? What for?" Rose asked happily, shuffling forward, peeking down into the hole.

"Dinosaurs." Donna offered weakly.

"What?"

"Dinosaurs?" She sounded less sure the second time.

"What are you on about, dinosaurs?"

"That film, Under the Earth, with dinosaurs. Trying to help!" Rose just blinked, eyebrows raised and teeth pressed against her tongue to keep from laughing.

"Donna... Not helping." There was a second or two of silence, before the feminine voice echoed around them again.

"Such a sweet couple.." It jeered. Rose pulled herself to her full height, and she walked in a way that was almost a strut around the large hole in the ground.

"Only someone who's mad walks about, talking to thin air." She said loudly, "and though I've doubted it sometimes, I'm fairly certain that I'm not mad. Where are you?" She demanded, her eyes flicking around the corners of the room.

"High in the sky, floating so high on Christmas Night." Rose just shook her head. Figures. It was Christmas, so of course all hell _had _to break loose.

"Come on then! I really don't like talking on the intercom, I much prefer seeing who I'm chatting with. Let's have a look at you!"

"Who are you with such command?" The voice demanded, loud enough that Rose could literally feel the vibrations of it on her skin.

"I'm Rose Tyler."

"Prepare your best medicines, Rose-child, for you will be sick at heart when you learn of who I am." There was a flash of brilliant blue-white light, followed by a hiss as the source of the voice teleported into the chamber, snarls and growls working their way past fanged teeth. With the body of a spider and an almost humanoid torso, the red-hued beast stood several feet taller than the pair on the concrete. Rose recognized this beast, and flashes from a TARDIS history lesson rushed back with blinding speed.

"The Racnoss..." She breathed, awed for a moment. "but that's impossible, you're one of the Racnoss!" There was a hiss that sounded angrier than the others so far, as the beast corrected her.

"I am the Empress of the Racnoss."

* * *

**So yeah, there it is. Hope you enjoyed this part, and I hope you're as happy as I am about the BBC news! *Hands everyone three cookies cause I'm feeling generous today.* I have to go squee embarassingly now. **


	4. Fire, Death, and Goodbye

**A/N: So here's the last bit for The Runaway Bride, and I hope that I've done relatively okay for my first 'episode'. If you actually read these authors notes, I love you and you deserve a ginormous hug, because I don't think that anybody does. I have a few questions for those of you who want to kind of be involved in the way this story goes, but I'll save that for the end. *Hugs anyone who reads the author's notes.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who, nor do I wish to. I don't think I'd be able to live with the pressure.. Whovians can be quite mean.. I should know, I am one!**

* * *

_"I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend...I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend..." _  
_-Neil Gaiman _

* * *

"If you're the Empress, where's the rest of the Racnoss? Or... are you the only one?" Rose taunted, taking a step back to better keep the monstrous being better in her sights.

"Such a sharp mind." She replied, followed by a particularly nasty hiss.

"That's it, the last of your kind." Rose turned to Donna, explaining quickly. "The Racnoss come from the Dark Times, billions of years ago, billions. They were carnivores, omnivores, they devoured whole planets, killed millions, destroyed countless civilizations."

"Racnoss are born starving, is that our fault?" The Empress jeered in reply.

"They eat people?" Donna said, sounding shocked, and Rose just sighed. Of all the things today, _that's _what captured her interest. The fact that they ate people. Of course. It was as she rolled her eyes that she noticed it.

"Donna..H C Clements, did he wear those- those erm, black and white shoes?" She asked.

"He did! We used to laugh, we used to call him the fat cat in spats." As she said this, a smile split her face for a second. Rose nodded, then just pointed upward. Donna looked toward the ceiling where a pair of black and white shoes still attached to a man's body could be seen poking out of what looked suspiciously like a web.

"Oh, my God!" She gasped, sounding a little bit like she might just gag. The Empress seemed to find this reaction entertaining, because she laughed.

"Mm, my Christmas dinner." Cackles followed this, and a striking thought reached Rose, and before the beast was done laughing, she interrupted it.

"You shouldn't even exist! According to history, the Fledgling Empires went to war against the Racnoss millions of years ago - they were wiped out." As this was being explained, Donna spotted Lance on a balcony above the Racnoss', unbeknownst to her, and he quickly motioned for her to stay silent.

"Except for me." The Empress snarled in retort to Rose's description of the Racnoss' demise. Donna looked at the alien, determined to keep her from seeing Lance, she started speaking, loudly as she could.

"But that's what I've got inside me, that Huon energy thing. Oi! Look at me, lady, I'm talking. Where do I fit in? How comes I get all stacked up with these Huon particles?" She kept it up as Lance descended the stairs, axe at the ready. "Look at me, you! Look me in the eye and tell me." The scarlet being seemed to find Donna's behavior amusing.

"The bride is so feisty!" She commented, but the fiery human wasn't done there.

"Yes, I am! And I don't know what you are, you big... thing. But a spider's just a spider and an axe is an axe! Now, do it!" The last part of her little tirade was obviously directed at Lance, who swung the axe. The Empress swiveled around and hissed at the last moment, then the axe stopped. He glanced 'round to look at Donna and began to laugh, a deep belly laugh, and the Empress joined in with him.

"That was a good one." He managed through the laughter, pointing at the Empress. "Your face!"

"Lance is funny." The Racnoss seemed to decide, falling into laughter as well. Donna's face contorted into confusion, and all she could manage is a startled:

"What?" It hit Rose about a second later, and she put her fingertips on the woman's forearm.

"I'm sorry.." She said quietly. Either Donna didn't understand or she didn't want to believe the truth directly in front of her.

"Sorry for what? Lance, don't be so stupid! Get her!" Lance smirked, then stared at her in a way that was pitying, like one might look at a stray dog or similar.

"God, she's thick..." He muttered, and Donna stared back at him, so confused. "Months I had to put up with her. Months. A woman who can't even point to Germany on a map." His voice became a cruel sneer as he looked down at her with something like contempt.

"I don't understand..." Donna said, uncomprehendingly, so Rose took the moment to try to explain the cold truth as easily as she could.

"How did you meet him?" She asked her, her voice quiet, gentle, sad.

"In the office."

"He made you coffee." She reminded her, carefully, trying to make her see without actually having to say it.

"What?"

"Every day, I made you coffee." Lance snapped, as if he were addressing an idiot. Rose ignored him, her eyes still on Donna.

"You had to be dosed with liquid particles over six months." The look on her face made it clear the Donna understood now, that she got it.

"H- He was poisoning me?" She asked, looking extremely hurt, her eyes still not having left Lance. Rose sighed at the irony of it all.

"It was all there in the job titled - the Head of Human Resources." She whispered, more to herself than to anybody else, but apparently Lance heard, because he started to laugh again.

"This time, it's personnel." And at that, he and the Racnoss roared into laughter again.

"But... we were getting married." Donna's eyes were wide, and tears threatened to brim over.

"Well, I couldn't risk you running off. I had to say yes. And then I was stuck with a woman who thinks the height of excitement is a new flavor Pringle. Oh, I had to sit there and listen to all that yap yap yap - "oh, Brad and Angelina - is Posh pregnant?" X Factor, Atkins Diet, Feng Shui, split ends, text me, text me, text me, dear God, the never ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia." Donna listened to this torrent of abuse with an expression of increasing hurt and confusion. "I deserve a medal." he finished, looking quite proud of himself. Unexpected anger burned through Rose, and her next words were so angry and heated that they were nearly growled instead of spoken.

"Oh, is that what she's offered you? You're just as inhuman as she is! The Empress of the Racnoss? What are you? Her consort?" Then, to add insult to injury, Lance flashes a cold grin.

"It's better than a night with her." He snapped, jerking his head toward Donna, whose plaintive voice could be heard again.

"But I love you." He smiled nastily at the last statement.

"That's what made it easy." Hatred bubbled up within Rose at the man, her blood boiling in her veins as he spoke again. "It's like you said, Rose - the big picture - what's the point of it all if the Human Race is nothing? That's what the Empress can give me. The chance to go out there. To see it. The size of it all. I think you understand that, don't you?"

"Who is this _child?_" The Racnoss Empress hissed again, gesturing to Rose now.

"What she said - Martian." Lance offered, looking always eager to please, to be a good little servant to the Empress. Rose shrugged, looking careless.

"Right now that should be the _least _of your worries. What I really want to know is, what's down here? The Racnoss should be extinct. What do you think is gonna help you four thousand miles down? That's just the molten core of the Earth, isn't it?"

"I think she wants us to talk." Lance drawled, smirking nastily.

"I think so too."

"Well, tough! All we need is Donna!" Obviously the Empress was in agreement.

"Kill this chattering little Rose-child!" Donna then spoke again, loudly, stepping in front of Rose protectively.

"Don't you hurt her!" Rose smiled gently, stepping past the protective arm cast out.

"No, no, it's all right." She could see that the human woman was trying with all her power to be brave, but it was painfully clear she was frightened to some degree.

"No, I won't let them!"

"At arms!" The Racnoss screeched, and obediently, the robots pointed their guns at Rose.

"Ah, now. Except.." Rose started, but is cut off by another screech from the arachnid-like beast.

"Take aim!"

"Well, I just think there's really something you ought to know-" She tried again, only to be once more spoken over.

"They won't hit the bride. They're such very good shots."

"Just- just- hang on there.. just a tic. If you think about it, the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my spaceship. So, I would think that if you reverse it... the spaceship comes to her." She flashed a cheeky grin before once again tweaking the tube of Huon particles, which immediately set the tube and Donna alight in a golden glow.

"Fire!" The Empress shrieked. Ever obedient, the robots fired their guns, but too late - the TARDIS materialized around them both, keeping Rose and Donna safe inside the walls of the ship. Rose lunged for the console, instantly in motion to get the TARDIS away.

"Off we go!" She dashed about the console, flicking switches and pressing buttons, looking as erratic as she once thought The Doctor to be. "Oh, you know what I said before about time machines? Well, now we're gonna use it." She paused as the TARDIS spun wildly through the vortex. "We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up. If something's buried at the planet core, it must've been there since the beginning. That's just fantastic. I don't get to say this much Donna but we're going further back than I've ever been before!" It was only then that she noticed Donna's shoulders were shuddering with silent tears pouring down her cheeks. Unsure of what she could say that could make anything better, she kept quiet, looking away.

The TARDIS, having arrived at its destination, clicked quietly as it cooled down and Rose peered around the console at Donna, who sat in one of the chairs. "We've arrived... want to see?" She asked gently.

"I s'pose." Was her unenthusiastic reply, and Rose started to swing the monitor round, when she paused.

"Oh, that monitor's a bit small, doesn't really capture it, does it?. Maybe your way's best." She walked to the doors, waiting for Donna to join her. "No human's ever seen this. You'll be the first." She said with a half-hearted laugh, trying to make her feel somewhat better.

"All I want to see is my bed." She sighed in tired response.

"Donna Noble - welcome to the creation of the Earth." She opened the doors onto a spectacular sight that made Donna's mouth fall open. The sun shone through beautiful colored dust and gas clouds, shadows cast by enormous rocks floating around. "We've gone back about... oh.. 4.6 billion years? There's no Solar System yes. Just dust and rocks and gas." She pointed to a spot in the distance. "That's the Sun over there, brand new, still a protostar. Just learning how to burn."

"Where's the Earth?" Donna asked, her eyes flicking around the marvelous sight.

"All around us... all this dust, the rocks, all of it." She explained, motioning to the beautiful clouds of dust that swirl just out of touching distance.

"Puts the wedding in perspective. Lance was right. We're just... tiny." Rose smiled at that. She remembered that fresh feeling after one of her first trips, the questioning if anything at all was worth it.

"No, but that's what w- you do. The Human Race. Making sense out of all the chaos out there. Marking it out with weddings and holidays and calendars. The whole process is beautiful, but it only is if it's being observed."

"So, I came out of all this?"

"Amazing, isn't it?" Rose asked as a massive chunk of rock floated lazily past the TARDIS. Donna eyed it dubiously.

"I think that's the Isle of Wight." She teased, and they both laughed.

"Eventually, gravity takes hold. Say, one big rock, heavier, more massive than the others, is big enough to start creating enough of a gravitational pull. It stars pulling other rocks and dust and little bits towards it. Bit by bit, everything gets all yanked in, piling itself up until.."

"You get Earth" Donna finished. Rose nodded in approval.

"But the question is... What exactly was that first rock, and why do the Racnoss need it?" As if on cue, a star shaped rock emerged through the clouds.

"Look."

"The Racnoss..." She breathed, rushing back to the console and turning a wheel frantically. "Wait.. that doesn't make any sense. At this point, the Racnoss are supposed to be hiding from the war, not running about down here. What's it doing?" She paused, waiting for Donna's answer.

"Exactly what you said." Wonder and amazement flooded through the human like adrenaline as she watched the rocks, the particles of dust and gas, all zooming towards the Racnoss as though drawn by a magnetic force. Rose raced back to the door to look, and it all clicked into place.

"Oh, they didn't just bury something at the center of the Earth... they literally became the centre of the Earth!" The TARDIS suddenly shuddered violently and they were suddenly almost knocked off their feet.

"What was that?" Donna asked, panicking as Rose's face turned into one of a grim expression.

"Trouble." Is all she managed before she slammed the doors shut. Both of them struggled to keep their balance as the ship shuddered and tipped, sparks flying and the whirring of the Time Rotor drowning out almost all other sound. Even Donna struggled to be heard over the noise.

"What the hell's it doing?" Rose was back to running all about the TARDIS, talking to the ship, stroking the console, struggling to pilot it as it soars through the Vortex.

"Remember that little trick I pulled - particles pulling particles? Well.. It works in reverse, and they've figured it out. They're pulling us back!"

"Well, can't you stop it? Hasn't it got a hand brake? Can't you reverse or warp or beam or something?" Rose stopped her motion to stare at Donna, dumbfounded for a second.

"Wait a minute!" She yelped, pulling out the extrapolator from where she knew it was underneath the console. "The extrapolator! Can't stop us, but it should give us a good enough bump to not be sitting ducks." There was a long pause as the TARDIS materialized. She dashed to the screen and grinned wildly. "It worked! Not too far away but far enough! Come on!"

They went running out of the TARDIS. Then they ran. It was only a few seconds before they made it to the doorway leading up to the Thames Flood Barrier.

"But what do we do?" Donna asked, sounding out of breath and scared, and who could blame her really? Rose ran her hands up and down the cool metal barrier, looking deep in thought, before pressing her ear up against it.

"I don't know! Figure I'll just make it up as I go along, not usually the best plan in the universe but I've made it work before, we'll live."

"But I still don't understand. I'm full of particles - but what for?" Rose turned and looked at her, taking in a deep breath before launching into explanation.

"There's a Racnoss web at the center of the Earth, alright? My 'people' unraveled their power source. The Huon particles ceased to exist but the Racnoss were stuck. So now they've been in hibernation for billions of years. Frozen. Dead. Whatever you want to call it, but _you're_ the new key. Brand new particles, brand new living particles! They need you to open it." She turned back to the door, running the end of the sonic along it experimentally. After a second she stopped cold. "You've not been this quiet since I've met you." She whirled around to see Donna gone, and to be honest she wasn't exactly surprised. It really was only natural that her first outing in almost three years was a 'save-the-world' mission turned 'save-the-world-and-handle-a-hostage-situation' mission.

She groaned and looked up and down the empty corridor before opening the door before her with the sonic screwdriver, only then to be confronted with an armed robot. _Just lovely. _It was a simple matter of pulling out the screwdriver and aiming correctly, before, with a flurry of sparks and a hiss of smoke, the robot fell to the ground. An idea struck her, and she pulled the robes away from the robot, then the mask, and carefully placed them on herself before setting off at a jog toward the chamber. She managed to get in without being detected, but the story changed as she made it halfway up the staircase.

"My children are climbing towards me and none shall stop them!" The Empress hissed and suddenly whirled to face Rose "So you might as well unmask, my clever little Rose-child." Rose stopped, and immediatly shed the cloak and the mask.

"Oh well. Nice try. Donna, stay calm, I'm going to get you out of there." She aimed her sonic screwdriver up at her and the web immediately began to loosen.

"I'm gonna fall!" Donna screeched in absolute terror, clinging to what little web was still left around her.

"Nope! You're gonna swing!" And sure enough, she swung right over the hole on one of the stands of web and towards the balcony where Rose stood, with an arm outstretched to reach for her hand. Donna screamed and swung almost underneath the balcony, barely managing to grab at Rose, who pulled her to safety.

"The rose-child amuses me." The Empress smirked. Rose's expression changed to something deathly serious, and she returned her attention to the Empress.

"Empress of the Racnoss - I give you one last chance. I can try to find you a planet and a place in the universe to coexist. This is my only offer, and I suggest you take it."

"These humans are so funny." The Racnoss snarled, looking toward Rose.

"What's your answer?" She demanded. A look of false apology flickered through the gruesome appearance of the Racnoss Queen, and she roared into new laughter.

"Oh - I'm afraid I have to decline."

"Fine, then what happens next is your own fault."

"I'll show you what happens next!" She hissed "At arms!" At their master's command, the robots once more raised their guns."Take aim! And fire!" But nothing happened. In fact, the robots go limp. Rose gave a little smirk, tilting her head at the Racnoss leader.

"What did you do?" Donna asked, looking confused.

"Guess what I've got, Donna?" She pulled the remote control from one of her jacket pockets. "Pockets."

"How did that fit in there?"

"They're bigger on the inside."

"Robo-forms are not necessary. My children may feast on Martian flesh." The Empress roared, infuriated.

"Oh. That's good. Here's the problem though, I'm not from Mars."

"Then where?"

"_Technically _I was born on Earth, but I'm guessing that's not what you mean. The home of my species was destroyed long ago in a brutal and deadly war. Gallifrey." Rose's voice grew in strength as for the first time she truly embraced the reality of the changes on her body, the change of her species, really, and the change of her status. For the very first time, she actually accepted the title of the last Time Lady.

The Empress emitted a noise much like a roar, her eyes full of anger. "They murdered the Racnoss!" She hissed wildly.

"I warned you. You did this to yourself." She said as she produced a handful of the explosive baubles from her pocket. It was now that the Racnoss began to panic, and rightly so.

"No! No! Don't! No!" Regardless of the pleas of the beast, Rose threw several handfuls of the baubles into the air. Some surrounded the Empress and some smashed into the walls of the corridor, destroying them and letting the water from the Thames rush though in torrents. Another bauble exploded, causing a fire at the Empress' feet. She wailed as water flooded into the chamber and down the hole.

"My children!" She wailed, grief-stricken. Rose stood there watching in total silence, surrounded by fire and water, while the river swirled down the hole like it's a plughole. She remained motionless as the last Racnoss howled in misery, screaming in upset. Raw power coursed through her veins, but it was a power that almost made her want to be violently sick, because it was wrong, but she couldn't stop. Something about the horrific scene before her had her completely transfixed and unable to look away, to stop. Donna blinked up at the girl, noting the coldness that colored her features, and she saw something for the first time. This girl, looking so young, had more than likely seen more horrors than she could even imagine.

"Rose! You can stop now!"

But Rose still couldn't stop - she watched the Racnoss writhe and wail in agony with dark eyes, full of some secret pain and then, she just stopped, turning to Donna with what was a poorly faked smile.

"Come on! Time I got you out!" They race their way up the stairs, dripping with water by the time they reach the surface.

"But what about the Empress?" Donna breathed after a quiet moment of climbing.

"She's used up all her Huon energy - she's defenseless." Rose said with a sigh that sounded more tired than it should have been. There was momentary relief as they clambered out into the night, both laughing and cheering in a somewhat morbid delight when they realized the Racnoss had been destroyed.

"Just... there's one problem." Donna said through gasps of air.

"What's that?"

"We've drained the Thames."

And so they had. They both burst into shaky laughter.

* * *

The TARDIS materialized across the road from Donna's house. She stepped outside, followed directly after by Rose, who gave a smile, patting the side of the ship affectionately. "There we go. Told you she'd be all right. She can survive anything."

"More than I've done." Donna commented, and Rose just smiled, pulling out the sonic screwdriver and scanning her over.

"Nope! All the Huon particles have gone. No damage, you're fine."

"Yeah, but apart from that... I missed my wedding, lost my job and became a widow on the same day. Sort of." A small bit of guilt lodged itself within Rose's stomach, making her uncomfortable for a second.

"I couldn't save him." She said quietly, not meeting Donna's eyes, that is until the unfeeling comment that came next.

"He deserved it." That made Rose raise her eyebrows, and almost in defeat, Donna's face softened. "Okay.. no, he didn't." She looked round at the house. "I'd better get inside. They'll be worried."

"Best Christmas present they could have." Rose said with a small smile as they watched Donna's parents hug tightly through the window. "Wait, no.. I forgot, you hate Christmas."

"Yes, I do."

"So... what is Donna Noble going to do with herself now?"

"Well I'm not going to get married, for starters. And I'm not gonna temp anymore. I dunno... travel... see a bit more of planet Earth... walk in the dust. Just... go out there and do something." Rose looked down. She'd been alone with the TARDIS for a long time now, and she wondered if it would be a good idea to ask Donna if she wanted to tag along.

"Well, you could always..." She started before she even realized herself what she was saying. Donna looked at her in partial surprise.

"What?" When Rose spoke again, it was tentatively, on the brink of timid, nothing at all like the tone she used with the Racnoss Empress.

"...come with me.." Donna smiled at her.

"No."

"Okay." She replied quickly, looking away.

"I can't.."

"No, that's fine." She said, putting on a mask of false indifference.

"No, but really... everything we did today... do you live your life like that?"

"... Not all the time." She said, though even she would later admit that her voice was less than definitely unconvincing.

"I think you do. And I couldn't."

"But you've seen it out there. It's beautiful." She argued half-heartedly.

"And it's also terrible. That place was flooding and burning and they were dying and you just stood there like... I don't know... a stranger, a cold stranger. And to be honest Rose, I think half the time you have no clue what you're doing, I don't think you've been at it a long time, not long enough to be responsible for someone other than yourself yet. Am I right? I mean, you scare me to death!" Rose said nothing for a long second.

"Well then."

"Tell you what I will do though - Christmas dinner. Oh, come on."

"I- I don't do that sort of thing."

"You did it last year, you said so. And you might as well because Mum always cooks enough for twenty." Rose gave a half smile after making a few false reluctance noises.

"Oh, all right then. But you go first, better warn them. And... please don't say I'm a Martian yeah? Wouldn't want to have to explain." She indicates to the TARDIS. "Just give me a second, yeah? Gotta get a quick shower, get changed. Beauty of a time machine, really, never have to worry about being late. I'll see you in a minute." She disappeared inside the TARDIS and it almost immediately began to dematerialize - and that's when Donna realized she was actually leaving.

"Rose! Rose!" She yelled, and the engines stopped and Rose pops her head outside the door.

"You really can shout." She teased.

"What are the chances I'll see you again?"

"If I'm lucky, they're high." She said with a half-hearted smile.

"Just... promise me one thing; find someone."

"I don't need anyone." And right then she was absolutely floored at how very much she just sounded like The Doctor. It was almost scary, and for a brief second she was worried that she was becoming someone she wasn't, when Donna started talking again.

"Yes, you do. Because sometimes, I think you need someone to stop you, just get a bit more practice taking care of yourself first."

"Yeah." She agreed quietly, pausing. "Thanks then, Donna - good luck - and just... have a fantastic life." Donna smiled and gave a little laugh.

"I think I will, yeah." Rose just grinned and retreated back into the TARDIS.

"Rose?" The door of the TARDIS swung open once more and Rose sighed in mock exasperation.

"Oh, what now?"

"That friend of yours... what was his name?" She swallowed past a lump in her throat, scratching out the words.

"His name was The Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

"Just.. The Doctor."

She closed the door for the last time - and instead of her usual dematerialization, the TARDIS shot straight into the night sky. Donna watched with a sad smile before walking back home.

* * *

**Okay, so I hope you enjoyed that chapter, and I hope you think I've done decently on this first bit of the story. Now here comes the questions I have, if you'd be so kind as to help me out.**

**1) When The Doctor was on Earth, he used the name John Smith. Well after Canary Wharf, Rose disappeared for almost three years, so she would've obviously ended up on the list of the dead, meaning she would obviously have to come up with some sort of alias to use, especially in the hospital where she meets Martha and when she later becomes human. My friend came up with Marion Smith, but I had something else in mind. Marion Dårlig Wolfe. Which one do you prefer?**

**2) Sometime later in the story I plan to bring in the Ninth Doctor, because I love him, his leather jacket, his northern accent, and the potential angsty goodness it could bring up. Which episode would you like to see him blunder in on? I was thinking maybe the two Dalek episodes, but what do you guys think?**

**If you could help me out with either of these I would love you so much there would be no words to describe my emotions.**


	5. Meeting the Wolfe

**A/N: So.. not much to say I guess.. I ended up going with the Marion Wolfe name, haven't decided If I'll put in the Darlig part when it gets to Family of Blood and Human Nature. I also think I'm going to bring in the Ninth Doctor during Daleks in Manhattan and Evolution of the Daleks. I also want to thank the anonymous reader who posted a very kind comment, as well as all of you who have commented, followed, and favorited.**

Disclaimer: Doctor Who and likewise affiliations are all propery of BBC and I will make no profit from writing this. 

* * *

_"There are stars in the night sky that look brighter than the others, and when you look at them through a telescope you realize you are looking at twins. The two stars rotate around each other, sometimes taking nearly a hundred years to do it. They create so much gravitational pull there's no room around for anything else. You might see a blue star, for example, and realize only later that it has a white dwarf as a companion - that first one shines so bright, by the time you notice the second one, it's too late."_  
_― Jodi Picoult_

* * *

It was rush hour, hundreds of people flooded the streets, and Martha Jones was walking to work, just another face in the crowd. as she walked, her mobile rang. She knew the number, so she smiled before she even answered. "You're up early! What's happening?"

_"It's a nightmare, cos Dad won't listen, and I'm telling you, Mum is going mental, swear to God Martha, this is epic, you've got to get in there and stop him-" _

"Well how do I do that?"

_"Just tell Dad he can't bring her-"_

The voice of her sister was cut off by two beeps, and she pulled the phone away from her face for a moment, looking down at the number with an expression that clearly stated she wasn't surprised.

"Hold on, that's Leo, call you back." She clicked the phone, switching the call to that of her brothers, who promptly started talking.

_"Martha, if Mum and Dad start kicking off, tell 'em I don't even want a party, I didn't even ask for one, they can give me the money instead."_

"Yeah, but why do I have to tell them? Why can't you?" Whatever response her brother planned to give, it was cut off by yet another two beeps, and once more she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at the number. "Hold on, that's Mum. Call you back." She clicked the phone over again. Her mother's voice immediately began drifting through the receiver, before she could even get it to her ear.

_"I don't mind your father making a fool of himself in private, but this is Leo's twenty-first, everyone is going to be there and the entire family is going to look ridiculous!" _

"Mum, it's a party, I can't stop Dad bringing his girlfriend-" Now she was sure Fate was just messing with her, because two more beeps sounded from the phone. "Hold on, that's Dad, I'll call you back." Next, the voice of her father drifts from the phone.

_"Martha, now tell your mother, Leo is my son, and I'm paying for half that party, I'm entitled to bring who I like."_

"I know, but think what it's going to look like for Mum, if you're standing there with Annalise."

_"What's wrong with Annalise?" _

Before Martha could answer, a second voice floats over the familiar one of her father, and she can't help the rush of slight distaste as the recognition of the voice hits her.

_"Is that Martha? Say hi! Hi Martha! Hiii!" _

"Hiiii Annalise."

"Big kisses! Lots of love! See you at the party babes! Now take me shopping, big boy."

Martha felt the familiar feeling of revulsion. She holds the phone away from her for a moment, when suddenly there was a woman not even two feet in front of her. She wore a leather jacket and dark blue scarf over a pale blue t-shirt and jeans. Her hair was light brown in color, as were her eyes. With a big smile, she took off the scarf and held it up.

"Like so," She said, waving the scarf dramatically. "See?" And with that, she turned and walks away like nothing had just happened. Martha stood stone still for a moment, watching her leave with a bewildered expression across her face.

She raised her eyebrows and tried to shrug it off. Nutter. She walked on, continuing on her way to work. Her phone rang once more, but defiant this time, she hit the ignore key and continued walking. She tried to not let any of this wear on her, and somehow she managed to keep her good humor, her head held high.

She passed by the familiar sign bearing the words Royal Hope Hospital, and headed for the main entrance. Behind her, a man who wore all leather and a motorcycle helmet was also walking towards the Hospital at a fast pace. He just barely clipped her as he overtook her, but kept on walking, without so much as a word or nod of apology.

"Oi! Watch it, mate!" She snapped, and he turned back, staring at her. There was something unnerving in his absolute stillness, and it left her just a bit spooked. Then as quickly as he stopped, he walked on, striding away. Though slightly unsettled, she shook it off and once again continued on her way in to work.

Just like every morning she made her way into the locker rooms, shucking off her jacket and pulling on white lab coat. As she reached for the edge of her locker to close it, a jolt of what she thought was static electricity leapt from the metal to her finger, and she jerked back with a muffled 'ow!'. She tapped her finger against the metal again, and when there was no shock this time, she closed the locker and finished preparing for her day.

* * *

"I was all right till this morning, then... Oh, I don't know, I woke up, I was all dizzy again, it was worse than when I came in." An older woman, probably in her sixties, lay in the clinical bed, surrounded by a group of medical students. The students were led by a man who's name tag labeled him as a Dr. Stoker, who looked to be in his mid-fifties.

"Pulse is slightly thready, let's see what Britain's finest might suggest, any ideas? Morgenstern?" Stoker asked, looking at the student expectantly.

"Uh, dizziness could be a sign of early onset diabetes- " He started, but he didn't get to finish, because Stoker almost immediately began cutting him off.

"Hardly early onset, if you'll forgive me, Miss Finnegan, any more ideas, Swales?"

"Um. Could recommend a CT scan" Though she didn't get cut off, she did get a very disapproving look from Stoker.

"And spend all our money? Jones." His eyes flickered to Martha at the end of the group.

"Um. We could take bloods and check for Meniere's disease."

"Or we could simply ask the patient, what did you have for dinner last night?"

"I had the salad."

"And the night before?"

"Salad again."

"And salad every night for the past week, contrary to my instructions. Salt deficiency, that's all. Simple, honest salt."

* * *

"Hippocrates himself expounded on the virtues of salt. Recommended the inhalation of steam from seawater. Though no doubt, if he'd been afflicted with my students, his oaths might have been rather more colorful." Stoker walked through the hospital, and the medical students followed in his wake like baby ducks. At one point Martha spotted the motorcyclist that hit her that morning, and another man who looked almost eerily identical.

Stoker led the students to another bed, a nurse joining them a few moments later.

"Now then, Ms Wolfe, a very good morning, and how are you today?" As Martha got closer, she was surprised to see the same woman who waved the scarf in her face this morning.

"Oh, not so bad. Still a bit, y'know. Eghnnn."

"Marion Wolfe, admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains - Jones, why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me." Nodding, Martha stepped forward, closer to the patient.

"Well it wasn't very clever running round outside, was it?"

"Sorry?"

"On Chancellor Street, this morning. You came up to me and took your scarf off."

"Really? What did I do that for?"

"I don't know, you just did."

"Well it wasn't me, swear. 'Cos I was here, I was in bed, you can ask the nurses."

"That's weird, cos it looked just like you, have you got a sister?"

"Nope, no. S'just me." Martha thought she saw a flash of something painful underneath the woman's eyes that made her regret asking.

"As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones..?" Mr. Stoker interrupted, eager to get on with his day. Heat flared up in Martha's cheeks and she looked down, embarrassed.

"Sorry, um. Right..." She put the stethoscope to left of the patient's chest and she heard the typical heartbeat that was expected, but under that, was that an echo..? She looked up at the woman, puzzled. Rose just flashed her a big smile. She moved the stethoscope over, to her right side. A second heartbeat. Impossible. Martha looked up again, astonished, right into the woman's eyes. And she was almost positive she saw the woman give her the smallest wink.

"I weep for future generations, but are you having trouble locating the heart, Miss Jones?" Moment broken - Martha stepped back, doing her best to hide the shock.

"Um, I don't know. She could be pregnant..?" Only after she said it did Martha realize the weight of the suggestion she had just thrown out. She blinked, looking almost apologetic back at the patient, who looked somewhere between shocked and bewildered.

"That's already been checked for, Miss Jones, but of course you didn't know that, seeing how you rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart." He picked up the patient's clipboard that hung on the end of the bed, when he jerked his hand back quickly, and a bit of blue light could be seen. Another static - electric shock it seemed. _"Ouch"_

"That happened to me this morning." Martha commented.

"I had the same off the door handle." The boy that Stoker earlier called Morgenstern added.

"And me, in the lift."

"Only to be expected, there's a thunderstorm moving in, lightning being a form of static electricity, as first proven by, anyone?"

"Benjamin Franklin." It was the patient who piped up with the answer, earning an odd look from Stoker.

"Correct."

"Sorry, I just always liked history in school, I hear a question I know the answer to now and it's like second nature to pop out with the answer. Got me in trouble a lot when I _was _at school too, it did."

"Interesting story. Moving on." The students left, filing out just as they came. Martha looked back for a second, intrigued, though the woman just beamed at her brightly.

* * *

At the windows, rain poured down outside, hard, and the rhythmic sound of the tapping against the windows seeped into the room. It was one of those narrow corridor-like staff kitchens, just off the general wards. Martha chatted on her mobile while her mate, Julia stood nearby, making coffee.

"No, listen, I've worked out a plan, we tell Annalise that the buffet tonight is 100% carbohydrate, and she won't turn up!"

_"I wish you'd take this seriously, that's our inheritance she's spending. On fake tan! Tell you what, I'm not that far away, I'll meet you for a sandwich, we can draw up a battle plan."_

"What, in this weather? I'm not going out, it's pouring down."

_"It's not raining here. That's weird. It's sitting right on top of you, I can see it, but it's dry where I am."_

"Well, you just got lucky."

_"No, but it's like in cartoons, you know, when a man's got a cloud over his head."_

"But listen, I tell you what we'll do." Martha paused as she saw the patient from earlier wearing hurry past. She chanced a glance at Martha, looking genuinely worried, but then she was gone, just like that. "We tell Dad and Annalise to get there early, for about 7:30, for Leo to do his birthday stuff. We tell Mum to come about 8:30 or nine, and that gives me time to have a word with Annalise, and- what?" She looked to see Julia staring at the window, dumbstruck.

"... the rain."

"It's only rain."

_"Martha.." _Trish whispered on the other end of the line. _"Have you seen the rain?"_

"Why's everyone fussing about rain?" She asked, frustrated, before turning to look at the window. As she did, she stops dead. Julia sucked in a shaky breath.

"...It's going **up**."

_"The rain is going up."_

Martha and Julia walked toward the window, their faces colored with shock. Several bolts of lightning shot up everywhere, and then the window was filled with a solid white light, making the two cringe away and throw their hands up, temporarily blinded.

And then all hell broke loose. Like an earthquake - with the windows staying a bright, constant white, the whole hospital shook violently. Martha and Julia were both thrown left, then right, then left again. The cupboards flew open, stuff flying out, then being flung in the opposite direction - like a ship at sea, in a storm. The duo dropped to the floor to wait out the horrible shaking. And then... It just stopped.

Calm. Silence.

"What the hell was that..?" Martha asked in a hushed voice.

"You all right?" Julia asked after another moment

"Think so, yeah." She replied, and they stood, cautious. Shaking off broken crockery. "Felt like an earthquake, or..?"

"Martha. It's night. But... It was lunchtime..."

"It's not night."

"But it's got to be, it's dark..." Julia walked forward, to join Martha. Then she just stared.

"We're on the Moon."

"...can't be."

"We're on the Moon. We're on the bloody Moon."

* * *

Everybody within the hospital seemed to go into a state of panic. Martha started running down the corridor with Julia, who was already crying, but following. Patients, visitors, and staff, were running about left and right. Martha ran on, with Julia directly, pushing past Miss Finnegan, who looked bewildered, in her nightie but clutching a black handbag, still gentle in the madness.

"Have you seen..?" She started, but Martha had no time, so she cut her off.

"I'm sorry, I can't."

"All right," She said, raising her voice as they entered the main ward. "Everyone back to bed, we've got an emergency but we'll sort it out." She walked slowly to the window and looked out. "It's real. It's really real. Hold on!" Her hand moved toward the window latch. Sobbing, Julia gave a squeak.

"Don't, we'll lose all the air!"

"But they're not exactly air tight. If the air was going to get sucked out it would have happened straight away, but it didn't. So how come?" She jumped slightly as the woman patient from earlier burst out from behind one of the beds, now fully dressed in jeans and a dark grey button up shirt.

"Very good point." She said, traipsing towards the window. "Brilliant, really. What was your name?"

"Martha."

"Jones, right? Martha Jones?" Martha nodded, so she continued. "Well then, Martha Jones, how are we still breathing?"

"We can't be!" Julia wailed.  
"Obviously we are. I don't mean to be rude, but _please _don't waste my time. Martha, what have we got? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or...?"

"By the patients' lounge, yeah."

"Show me?"

"Okay."

"We might die." She warned, looking cautious.

"We might not." Martha retorted easily, raising her eyebrows.

"Good." She replied brightly, looking toward Julia. "Hey, I need you to look at me, right now." After about a second, Julia complied, looking at the woman, who put a hand on your shoulder. "You are a doctor." Julia opened her mouth to argue, but the woman was hearing none of it. "Doctor in training or not, these _are _your patients, and they're scared. You can't break down right now because they need you right now." Julia nodded, swallowing and roughly wiping the tears from her cheek. "Martha, show me this veranda."

* * *

They stepped together out onto the balcony, darkness enveloping them.

"We've got air!" Martha exclaimed. "How does that work?"

"Don't know yet. Just be glad it does."

"I've got a party tonight. It's my brother's twenty-first. My mother's going to be really ... really.."

"You okay?" The woman asked gently, a comforting tone in her voice.

"Yeah."

"Sure?"

"Yeah."

"You want to go back in?"

"No way. I mean, we could die any minute, but all the same - it's beautiful."

"You think?" Her voice was surprised, as if that was the very last answer she was expecting.

"How many people want to go to the moon? And here we are!"

"Ah, standing on the balcony in the lovely glow of the Earthlight."

"What do you think happened?" Martha asked, turning her head to look at the woman, who looked out toward the distance

"I can think of a few things, but what do _you _think happened?" The woman sounded more interested in Martha's theory than her own, which was a little bit disconcerting, but otherwise fascinating.

"Extraterrestrial. It's got to be. I don't know, a few years ago that would have sounded completely mad, but these days? That spaceship flying into Big Ben - Christmas - those Cybermen things. I had a cousin. Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf. She never came home."  
"I'm sorry." And Martha wasn't entirely sure she had ever heard such a sincere apology.

"Yeah.."

"I was there... In the battle.. It was..." Whatever 'it was', she didn't finish, her voice was so quiet the doctor-in-training almost missed it, but in the bit that she did hear, she heard a brokeness in the words that just about broke her heart. She almost wanted to reach a hand out and comfort her, a woman she didn't even know. Instead she offered a confident smile.

"I promise you, Ms. Wolfe, we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, then we can travel back. There's got to be a way." The woman raised her eyebrows, like as if surprised that she's the one being comforted. She laughed darkly and took a step backwards, walking to the other side of the balcony and leaning against the railing.

"It's not Wolfe. That's not my name." She said quietly, looking into the darkness, looking as if she would like nothing more than to melt into it.

"Who are you then?"

"Rose." The name was whispered softly, almost like she was just remembering it, rather than actually saying it.

"Rose what?"

"Just Rose."

"You have to have a last name."

"Do I?" She challenged, arching an eyebrow and turning to face her. Her expression softened slightly after a brief second. "My surname isn't important. Just Rose."

"Alright, but I mean it Rose, we'll figure out a way to get home." She put as much strength and force into the words as she could, and she just hoped it sounded convincing enough.

"Well, if we're going to get out, I'd better make a start, then. Let's have a look." Rose reached for a pebble off the ground, throwing it with all her might. It hit an invisible wall before bouncing back some. "There must be some sort of force field keeping the air in." She concluded aloud, now pacing along the length of the balcony.

"If that's like a bubble sealing us in, that means this is the only air we've got. What happens when it runs out?" Martha asked suddenly, her eyes flicking to where the rock landed at the edge of the force field.

"Out of curiosity, how many people are in this hospital?"

"I don't know.. 'bout a thousand or so, but you still haven't answered my question." Rose stopped her pacing and turned toward Martha, bouncing a little bit on the balls of her feet as she did so.

"Sorry, get myself worked up. What was your question?"

"What happens when the air runs out in the force field?" The woman's face turned from that of a young person with a gentle smile, to the grim expression of someone who was simply _tired_.

"About a thousand or so people suffocate." She watched, and Martha was sure that she had never seen anybody whose emotions changed as much as this woman's seemed to.  
"B-but why would someone do that?" Martha tried to keep her voice steady as she talked, and she failed miserably, but if Rose noticed she didn't say anything. A low rumble came from somewhere above them, and everything shook for a few seconds.

"Heads up, and you can ask 'em yourself." She watched the ships hovering over the top of the hospital and coming to land on the other side. She looked over at Rose, who wore a grim expression.

"Aliens. That's aliens. Real, proper aliens." She whispered, her eyes drinking in the sight of the spaceships just a few hundred meters away.

"They're called the Judoon."

* * *

The Judoon then began entering the hospital, walking through the force field. Almost everybody watched. Some screamed, some ran, some cowered and a few tried in vain to hide. Almost all motion ceased however when the chief Judoon removed his helmet, revealing a head that bore striking resemblance to that of an Earth rhino.

"Bo sco fo do no kro blo co sho ro!" A young man, a med student from earlier, the one called Morgenstern, spoke up, though his voice quivers in fright as he did so.

"We are citizens of planet earth. We welcome you in peace." The chief Judoon pushed him against the wall and shined a blue light in his face. The young human gave into the inherent fear at being pressed against a wall by an alien on the moon. "Please don't hurt me, I was just trying to help, I'm sorry, don't hurt me, please don't hurt me." He pleaded, trying to squirm away. The Judoon played his words back on his portable machine, before releasing the young man and stepping back.

"Language assimilated. Designation Earth English. You will be catalogued." The Judoon leader announced, before shining another blue light in Morgenstern's face. He then marked an 'x' on the back of his hand. "Category: human. Catalogue all suspects." The Judoon troops immediately started shining the blue light on people, checking their species, then marking the right hand of each with an 'x', announcing 'human' each time they did so. Martha and the girl called Rose watched from behind some potted plants on the mezzanine level.

"Oh, look down there, you've got a little shop. A good friend of mine always used to love a little shop." She said calmly, like such things were the most normal thing to say when aliens with rhino heads were cataloguing humans.

"Never mind that! What are Judoon?" Martha asked, impatience growing within her.

"Oi.. You're direct.." Rose muttered quietly, before sighing and turning to look her in the eye. "Galactic police. _Well.. _That's kind of debatable really. From what I've heard and read, they're more like interplanetary thugs."

"And they brought us to the moon?" What was she saying? That made absolutely no sense, but at the same time it did. She was so confused, so she just waited for an answer.

"Kind of. The moon's a satellite, so it's neutral territory. According to almost all galactic law, they can't really do much of anything on Earth, so they just gone and isolated us. The weird rain, lighting, static. That was all them, using something called an H2O scoop to get us here. It's quite clever really."

"What's that about 'galactic law'? Where'd you get that from? If they're police, are we under arrest? Are we trespassing on the moon or something?"  
"No, but I like that Martha Jones, 'S Good thinking. But really, it's a lot simpler than that. They're just making a catalogue. They're cataloging by species in an Earth hospital, which means they're after something not human, and if they find it they're not likely to conduct an interview. They'll probably just execute the first nonhuman they find and be done with it, which is _really _bad news for me.

"Why?" She asked, curious, though the look on Rose's face in response answers her. "Oh.. you're kidding me." She muttered, and her counterpart just raised her eyebrow, still looking at her. "Don't be ridiculous, and stop looking at me like that!"

"Come on, then." Rose muttered, standing and going jogging down the hall.

The Judoon chief stood by the door, watching the two humans on the upper level run away.

"Troop five, floor one. Troop six, floor two. Identify humans and find the transgressor. Find it." He ordered.

* * *

**Well.. theres part one, two more to go. Reviews are always appreciated, suggestions are always taken into account, and I hope to see you next chapter. **


	6. The Bite of a Plasmavore

**A/N: Hey guys, here's part two of Smith & Jones, or rather Smith & Wolfe. Just a warning, I won't be updating for about another day or two, because guess who managed to more than likely give herself a concussion? This chick! But I promise to do my best to get you guys up another chapter soon. If you've commented, favorited, or followed, I love you to bits. If you haven't I hate you and want you to die in a hole. Just kidding! Not. Yep!**

Disclaimer: All rights go to BBC. 

* * *

_"I think that we are like stars. Something happens to burst us open; but when we burst open and think we are dying; we're actually turning into a supernova. And then when we look at ourselves again, we see that we're suddenly more beautiful than we ever were before!"_

_― C. JoyBell C._

_"Stars, too, were time travelers. How many of those ancient points of light were the last echoes of suns now dead? How many had been born but their light not yet come this far? If all the suns but ours collapsed tonight, how many lifetimes would it take us to realize we were alone? I had always known the sky was full of mysteries—but not until now had I realized how full of them the earth was."_

_― Ransom Riggs_

* * *

Rose dashed down a hallway, well aware of Martha not too far behind her. She took a left at the first intersection, going for the staircases in an attempt to stay ahead of the Judoon. Finally she paused at a suitable room, bursting through the door and running to the computer in the corner, examining it with her sonic screwdriver. A few seconds later Martha rushed, panting from the unexpected run.

"They've reached the third floor." She reported, raising her arms slightly to open her lungs to more oxygen. With limited oxygen in the hospital, the last thing she needed was to be wasting oxygen right and left because she didn't exercise as much as she should. She looked at the strange device in Rose's hand, her eyebrows raising in curiosity. "What's that thing, then?"

"Sonic screwdriver." She answered, using the device to do something to the computer monitor. It must have worked, because a look of satisfaction rushed over Rose's face and she started typing quickly.

"Well, if you're not going to answer me properly!" Martha snapped back, irritation evident in her voice. Why was she following this girl? Why didn't she just go to the third floor and be counted as human like everybody else was? It would certainly make things much easier.

"No, really, it is. It's a screwdriver, and it's sonic. Look." Turning toward Martha, Rose twirled the screwdriver in between her fingers, flipping it on, and letting the red light glow for a second before she returned to going through the computer. "But if you want to go be counted as a human, I can handle this alone. Go on then." It was almost eerie how well Rose knew almost exactly what she had been thinking, and it was a little bit unnerving.

"Not going anywhere. What else have you got? A laser spanner?" She teased, looking over Rose's shoulder to see what she was doing to the computer.

"Are you kidding me? Making the screwdriver was hard enough. Had burns all over my hands for months!" She said with a tense laugh, and Martha could see her pressing her teeth together in frustration. Finally she lashed out, her open palm slamming into the side of the monitor. "Oh, this bloody computer! The Judoon must have locked it down!" Martha was pretty sure all that was simple frustration, but if that was frustration, she _really _never wanted to see Rose angry. The girl leaned backwards, the short cut, light brown hair that was pulled into a messy ponytail dangling over the back of the chair. It was all Martha could do not to giggle when she heard Rose chanting a funny little phrase. "Judoon platoon upon the moon."

Rose sighed, turning her head to the left, looking out the window. "I was just traveling past. I was just wandering, I wasn't looking for trouble, honest to God I wasn't, but I noticed these plasma coils around the hospital, and that lightning, that's plasma coils, been building up for two days now, so I checked in, I thought something was going on inside, it turns out the plasma coils were the Judoon up above." She sighed, looking tense, and Martha couldn't help but notice again how very _tired _she looked.  
"But what were they looking for?" She asked, wanting to know more. If she was going to die, she at least wanted to know why first.

"Something that looks human, but isn't."

"Like you. Apparently." She was still having trouble wrapping her mind around the fact that the girl in front of her wasn't human. Relatively speaking, it should be pretty easy to accept, hadn't she heard the double heartbeat for herself?

"Like me. " She agreed, looking back to the computer screen. "But not like me."

"Haven't they got a photo?"

"Could be a shape-changer." Rose replied with a shrug, slipping deep into thought.

"Whatever it is, can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?"

"That could be bad. If they don't find who it is they're looking for, they might declare the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive. If they do that, then they'll sentence it to execution." She leaned forward again, typing furiously, trying desperately to get her way through the computer.

"All of us?" Martha gasped, confused as to why they would condemn over a thousand people to find one.

"Oh yes. If I can find this thing first... OH!" Rose yelled, making Martha jump in alarm as she stood up so quickly the chair was thrown back several feet. She paced up the longest wall in the room, rubbing at her face with her hands and talking to herself. The woman was mad, Martha concluded. "They wiped the records. Oh, that's clever."

"Well what are we looking for?"

"I don't know. Any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a back-up." She returned to the computer, pulling the chair close again. Then she picked the monitor up and flipped it over in her hands, running the sonic all over it, looking for any way to retrieve the files.

"Just keep working. I'll go ask Mr Stoker, he might know." Martha jogged into the hallway without waiting for an answer and headed down the corridor, knocking on the door to Mr. Stoker's office. She goes in before she even gets an answer however, deciding that now is not the time to be all polite. "Mr Stoker!" She saw his feet sticking out around the desk, and then her eyes focused on the two leather-clad motorcyclists from earlier. Miss Finnegan rose from the floor, straw in hand. Struck numb with horror, Martha turns and ran.

"Kill her!" Finnegan shrieked, her lips bright red with the blood of the doctor.

About five steps into the hallway and Martha crashed harshly into Rose, and they both almost ended up sprawled on the floor.

"I've restored the back-up." Rose announced proudly, and just a little bit smugly.

"I found her." She barely managed to gasp out, righting herself and getting ready for another long run.

"You what?" The leather men smashed through the door and Rose's eyes widened. "Run!" She yelped, grabbing Martha's wrist and heading in the opposite direction of the motorcyclists. They dashed madly down the stairs, followed the entire time. Going down still, they almost crashed into the Judoon coming up the next flight of the stairs. It's by mere luck that they barely managed to dodge out a doorway on the fourth floor. The entered another corner and skidded around a corner and into a radiology room. Rose closed and locks the door in the face of one of the leather men, tightening the lock using the sonic. She gave Martha a little shove into the control room. "When I say 'now', press the button!" She ordered.

"But I don't know which one!"

"Well the find out! _Quickly!_" She then began using her sonic screwdriver on some of the machinery while Martha went looking for the Operator's Manual. One of the leather men broke down the door, storming into the room. It then advanced upon Rose. "Now!" She yelled as he neared her, getting too close for comfort. Martha slammed her hand down on the button, and Rose turned on the sonic, blasting both the leather man and herself with radiation. He fell inert to the ground, and she swayed slightly, dizzy for a second.

"What did you do?" Martha asked Rose incredulously, staring at the motionless body on the ground through the glass of the safety room.

"Increased the radiation by about.." She paused, looking like she was doing math in her head. "five thousand percent. Killed him dead." She nudged the lifeless body with her toe, as if just making sure.

"But wouldn't that.. y'know.. kill you too?"

"Nah, it's only roentgen radiation. It's safe for you to come out now, pretty sure I've absorbed it all. All I need to do is expel it." As she said this she started hopping on her left foot, swaying back and forth. "If I concentrate I can shake the radiation out of my body and into one spot." She explained, a pained look crossing her face as she shook her foot some."It's in my right shoe. Here we go, here we go, easy does it..." She started shaking her foot more wildly now, bouncing a bit on her right as she shakes her left. After several repetitions of 'ow' and 'itches', she slid the shoe only onto her toes before tossing it into a radioactive trashbin. "Done." She grinned happily.

"You're completely mad." Martha muttered, her eyes widening at the whole display.

"Sure, believe that if you want. It's going to suck running in one shoe." She seemed to realize, before she took off the other shoe and tossed it to the side, bouncing a little bit on the cold tile. "Barefoot on the moon, never thought I'd say that." Martha rolled her eyes, walking to the leather creature, still motionless on the ground.

"So what is that thing? And where's it from? The planet Zovirax?" She teased, looking up at Rose.

"It's just a Slab. They're called 'Slabs'. Basic slave drones, see? They're solid leather, all the way through, least I'm pretty sure they are. I don't have the TA- I've got no way to verify though. Someone has got one hell of a fetish, reminds me of an old friend of mine." She said alongside a bark-like laugh.

"It came with that woman, Mrs. Finnegan. It was working for her. Just like a servant." Rose walked to the X-Ray machine, retrieving what little remained of her sonic screwdriver.

"My sonic screwdriver..."

"She was one of the patients, but.." Martha was cut off by another repeat of 'My sonic screwdriver!' She ignored it and continued. "She had a straw like some kind of vampire."

"It took me forever to make this thing!"

"Rose!"

Rose's head jerked up and she looked at Martha. "Sorry.." She mumbled, tucking the remaining bits of her sonic screwdriver in her pocket.

"Anyway! Miss Finnegan is the alien. She was drinking Mr. Stoker's blood."

"That's weird, that she's feeding right now. You'd think she'd be in hiding. Unless... Yes! That's it! She's a shape-change, an internal shape-changer. She wasn't drinking blood, she was assimilating it! If she can assimilate Mr Stoker's blood, she can register as human. We've got to find her and show the Judoon!" They both took off running into the corridor, Rose in the lead, only having to duck behind a water cooler almost immediately as the remaining Slab walked down the corridor."That's what I hate most about Slabs. They seem to always travel in pairs." Rose grumbled, more to herself than to Martha.

"What about you?" She asked Rose suddenly.

"What about me, what?"

"Haven't you got back-up? You must have a partner or something?" Rose blinked, then let a scoffing laugh escape her.

"What?"

"Humans. We're stuck on the moon running out of air with Judoon and a bloodsucking criminal, you want to know if I have back-up. Come on. If I did, don't you think I'd have called them by now?" She stood and started into the hallway.

"I like that. 'Humans.' I'm still not convinced you're an alien." She muttered, wondering if the girl really _was _an alien. Before Rose can take three steps, however, they're smack in front of a Judoon, who shines his blue light right in her face. She internally cringes.

"Non-human." Came the Judoon's grunt.

"Oh my God, you really are!" Martha gasped, her eyes growing wide in shock.

"And again... Run!" The ran like nobodies business, and the Judoon were right after them. They went upstairs, and managed to lock a door behind them, emerging in a corridor where people were falling to the ground, gasping for breath. "Okay, they've done this floor. That's good.. Hopefully. The Judoon are extremely logical - to the point of almost stupidity. I doubt they'll go back to check a floor they've checked already. Please let us be lucky.." Martha stopped by Julia, who seemed to be managing to keep people relatively calm, which was a feat considering the circumstances.

"How much oxygen is there?" She asked, eyes flicking to all the sick patients.

"Not enough for all these people. We're going to run out." Rose returned to Martha, looking her up and down with something that was a cross between curiosity and concern.

"How are you feeling? Are you all right?" If she still had the sonic screwdriver she would probably check Martha with it, but since she couldn't she just hoped that she was telling her the truth.

"I'm running on adrenaline." She smiled in reply to that statement.

"Welcome to my world." Another laugh, but it still didn't sound like a human laugh at all. It was short, broken, and choppy, more like a bark than a laugh.

"What about the Judoon? Won't it hurt them too?"

"Probably not, they've got great big lung reserves, it won't slow them down. Where's Mr Stoker's office?"

"It's this way." She replied, leading Rose to the office labeled with the name 'Dr. Stoker'. They entered, but there was no trace left of the other Slab or the plasmavore.

"She's gone! She was here!" Rose knelt beside the lifeless body of the doctor, her fingers drifting across parts of his skin.

"Yep. Drained him dry. Every last drop. I was right. She's a plasmavore."

"What was she doing on Earth?"

"Hiding. On the run. I think the better question is what's she doing now? She's still not safe. The Judoon could execute us all. Come on."

"Wait a minute.." Martha asked, moving to Mr. Stoker's side and closing his eyes gently, the proper way. She could almost believe he's sleeping now. She followed Rose into the corridor. While through most of the whole ordeal, Rose remained almost completely calm, she paced back and forth like an escapee from the mental ward.

"Think, think, think. If I was a plasmavore surrounded by police, what would I do?" She looked up and saw the MRI sign. "Aah. She's very clever." From further down the hallway, voices of the Judoon floated toward them. Calls of 'find the non-human' got steadily louder and louder. Rose turned to Martha.

"Stay here. I need time. You're going to have to hold them up."

"How do I do that?" An idea struck Rose, but how? How?!

"Martha, you'll figure it out, I know you can. You don't have to hold them up long, just long enough. Seeya." She pressed her lips gently against Martha's cheek before taking off at a sprint down the hall with wild abandon, keeping her breakneck pace long after the respiratory bypass has kicked in. (She was almost more grateful for that than anything else.) She staggered into the MRI room, feeling a sense of victory when she heard the machine making strange noises and she saw that Florence Finnegan was working with the controls. She put on an innocent face and banged into the wall, trying to blunder about like a bunch of the panicked humans just a few floors away.

"Have you seen? There are these things, those great big space rhino things! I mean rhinos! From space! And we're on the moon! Great big space rhinos with guns on the moon! And I only came in because my sister in law was havin' a baby! A perfectly healthy little girl, was born a little bit premature, but she's all right now, perfectly good treatment. I said to my fiancé, I'd recommend this place to anyone, but then we end up on the moon! And did I mention the rhinos?" If she was honest with herself, she was actually quite proud of that little monologue, even prouder that she came up with it on the spot.

"Hold her!" Florence yelled, and like good little servants, the Slabs took hold of her while their master was fussing with the MRI machine.

"That thing, that big machine thing, is it supposed to be making that noise?" Rose asked, tilting her head and playing innocent.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Isn't that a magnetic resonance imaging thing? Like a ginormous sort of a magnet? I did magnets at school. I mean, I failed it, but still.."

"The magnetic setting is now set to 50,000 Tesla."

"Ooh. That's a bit strong, isn't it?" It was actually a _lot _strong, she knew it, she knew well what it would do, but she was also good at acting, and for a moment she was almost pleased she allowed her mum to talk her into taking a drama class when she was still at school.

"I can send out a magnetic pulse that will fry the brain-stems of every living thing within 250,000 miles. Except me, safe in this room."

"But... hold on, hold on, I did geography too, I didn't pass that one either, but doesn't that distance include Earth?"

"Only the side facing the moon. The other half will survive. Call it my little gift." _Some gift. _Rose thought, fighting the urge to sniff and turn away. The only thing she hated more than genocide and the murder of women, children, and the elderly was sick acts of 'mercy' like this.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to forgive me, I'm a little out of my depth. I've spent the past six years working as a housekeeper, hence the lack of appropriate footwear - why would you do that?" For emphasis she wriggled her bare toes against the cold tile.

"With everyone dead, the Judoon ships will be mine, to make my escape."

"Now, that's weird. You're talking like you're some sort of an alien."

"Right-o."

"No!" She 'gasped' in mocking disbelief.

"Oh, yes."

"You're kiddin' me." The 'disbelief' positively dripped off her voice, and she wondered how the plasmavore hadn't figured it out yet.

"I am not."

"I'm talking to an alien? In hospital? What, has the place got an ET department?"

"It's the perfect hiding place. Blood banks downstairs for a midnight feast, and all this equipment I'm ready to arm myself with should the police come looking."

"So, those rhinos, they're looking for you then?"

"Yes. But I'm hidden."

"Oh. Right! Maybe that's why they're increasing their scans." She nodded, as if understanding something, fighting down a smile when she gets the desired response.

"They're doing what?"

"Yeah. The big chief rhino boy, he said, no sign of a non-human, we must increase our scans... up to setting two?"

"Then I must assimilate again."

"What does that mean?" She tilted her head the other way, raising her left eyebrow in even more pretend confusion.

"I must appear to be human."

"Well, you're welcome to come home and meet my husband. He'd be honored. We can have cake. Or bananas." It almost hurt to say the last two words, but she forced them out, hoping she was able to make them sound sincere.

"Why should I have bananas? I've got my little straw."

"That's nice. Milkshake? I like banana, but I'm sure you've guessed that."

"You're quite the funny girl. And yet, I think, laughing on purpose at the darkness. I think it's time you found some peace. Steady her!"

"What are you doing?" She asked, pretending to panic as the Slabs tightened their grip on her and Florence approached with her straw.

"I'm afraid this is going to hurt sweetheart. But if it's any consolation, the dead don't tend to remember." The straw punctured the skin just underneath her jaw, and Rose barely managed to control herself and not begin to panic when the pain started, it was so intense. Florence drank her blood eagerly with a straw, the warm scarlet liquid staining her lips and satiating a deep thirst within her. Rose had long since stopped trying to fight, and now that a good amount of blood was gone, it didn't hurt as much, it actually was making her feel numb and tingley. Florence leapt away from her when the Judoon burst suddenly into the room.

"Now see what you've done you brutes. This poor, sweet girl just died of fright!" Martha stepped forward, looking at the motionless, too-pale form of Rose on the ground. The Judoon chief ran the blue light over her body, and when it beeped, he read out the readings.

"Confirmation: deceased."

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**There you goes. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, reviews are luffed and appreciated, and I'll see ya next chapter. In a few short episodes we get to see Nine, so there's a bone for all you Nine fanatics out there (Myself included). **


	7. Gasping for Breath

**A/N: So here's the last bit in this episode, and I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to review and favorite and follow this story. It means a lot to me, it really does. My head is still killing me from my little trip to concussion-land, but I wanted to go ahead and get this up for you guys, so I'm sorry if there are some spelling and grammar mistakes. If you're enjoying this story, or even if you're not, I highly recommend reading Wintermoth's ****_With Starlight in Their Wake. _****I really enjoy it and it's definitely worth a look.**

***Inserts humorous disclaimer here***

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_"The stars we are given. The constellations we make. That is to say, stars exist in the cosmos, but constellations are the imaginary lines we draw between them, the readings we give the sky, the stories we tell."_

_― Rebecca Solnit_

_"To him the stars seemed like so many musical notes affixed to the sky, just waiting for somebody to unfasten them. Someday the sky would be emptied, but by then the earth would be a constellation of musical scores"_

_― Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis_

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"No, she can't be! Let me through, let me see her." Martha snapped, pushing past the Judoon in front of her.

"Stop. Case closed." The gravelly voice of the Chief Judoon sent waves of frustration and fury rippling through her. She stood and pointed directly at the plasmavore whose lips were still stained with blood.

"But it was her. She killed her. She murdered her!"

"The Judoon have no authority over human crime."

"But she's not human!" Martha exclaimed angrily. Finnegan smiled a smug smile and held up her hand.

"Oh, but I am. I've been catalogued." She said in a sugar-sweet voice that made Martha want to be sick.

"But she's not! She assimil- Wait a minute. You drank her blood. You drank Rose's blood." She said incredulously. Without warning she snatched a Judoon scanner right out of it's huge hand, advancing towards the plasmavore.

"Oh, all right. Scan all you like." The old woman said with a smile. As the blue light crossed over her forehead, a static-like sound emitted from the scanner.

"Non-human." It was the chief Judoon again, and he's made sure that the plasmavore is stuck in the room.

"What?"

"Confirm analysis." At once, about six Judoon troops all raised their scanners and aimed them at the now cornered Florence. She started to panic now, it's written all over her face as she took another step back, her dark eyes wide.

"Oh, but it's a mistake, surely. I'm human. I'm as human as they come." Her voice shook and she took another step back.

"She gave her life so they'd find you.." Martha whispered, surprise, shock, and awe flooding her voice as the reality of that statement kicked in. The Judoon chief was speaking again, though Martha scarcely heard him.

"Confirmed: Plasmavore. I charge you with the crime of murdering the princess of Patrival Regency Nine."

"She deserved it! Those pink cheeks and those blond curls and that simpering voice. She was begging for the bit of a plasmavore!" Florence screeched.

"Do you confess?"

"Confess? I'm proud of it! Slab - stop them!" The Slab shot it's weapon, and the Judoon shot theirs. The Slab disintegrated on the very first hit that it took.

"Verdict: guilty. Sentence: execution." The booming voice of the Judoon Chief echoed off the walls of the MRI room.  
The warning sign beside the imagine machine suddenly lit up, the words MAGNETIC OVERLOAD flashing repeadedly.

"Enjoy your victory Judoon, because you're going to burn with me! Burn in-!" Florence screamed as they disintegrated her, and as soon as she was dead, Martha rushed over to the still motionless form of Rose.

"Case closed." Pronounced the Judoon, sounding victorious as he did so.

"What did she mean, 'burn with me'? The scanner shouldn't be doing that. She's done something!" The Judoon did a scan of the machine, and the results were horrifying.

"Scans detect lethal acceleration of monomagnetic pulse."

"Well, do something! Stop it!" She yelled, why were they just standing there? Why wouldn't they do something to help?

"Our jurisdiction has ended. Judoon will evacuate."

"What? But you can't just leave it! What's it going to do!?" The Judoon were ignoring her now, it was blatantly obvious.

"All units withdraw." The aliens quickly departed, yet the sign continued to flash: MAGNETIC OVERLOAD.

"What about the air? We're running out of air! You can't go! That thing's going to explode!" But nothing she said mattered, because they left, so Martha did the only thing she knew to do. She dropped to her knees beside Rose and soundlessly began doing compressions. "One-two-three-four-five. One-two-three-four-five." Her hands moved steadily in the repetitive pattern over the left side of Rose's chest. She did this for the upside of a minute before she remembered something. Two hearts! She had two hearts! She moved her hands to the right side of her chest, lower than the heart would be on the left. "One-two-three-four-five. One-two-three-four-five." Back to the left side, "One-two-three-four-five. One-two-three-four-five."

She was running out of air, the edges of her vision were slipping into blackness, and she kept losing count on which compression she's on. There was a strangled cough as Rose's body jerked upwards, her breath ragged as her body tried to take in precious oxygen that was simply not there.

"The scanner. She did something." Martha barely managed to gasp out the words, her chest heaving with the effort it cost her. She heard Rose assure her that it was okay, and she slipped into the darkness, the words 'You were fantastic' echoing in the far reaches of her mind.

Coughing, and barely able to breathe herself, Rose crawled and staggered to the MRI machine, the scant five foot distance almost draining her of energy, and unplugs several things from the wall. She then returned for Martha, who lay unconscious on the tile floor. Bending over and almost falling herself, Rose hooked her arms under Martha's, pulling with every bit of strength left in her body to get her down to one of the lower levels of the hospital.

By the time she got her friend down to the first floor, where there were still a few conscious people, her vision kept dipping into darkness. Her respiratory bypass had been in effect about as long as it was going to last, and she felt like she was close to passing out. She left Martha propped up against one of the helium tanks from the little shop, before half walking, half crawling to the window to peer out at the Judoon ships.

"Come on, come on, come on. Come on, Judoon, reverse it." She pled with beings that couldn't hear her, but it was worth it when it started to rain on the moon. She smiled, watching the drops of condensation drip down the windows. "Martha...It's raining. It's raining on the moon." She mumbled, fighting for consciousness now. If she looses consciousness she won't be able to get away from the hospital without being given a medical evaluation, and that would just lead to so many questions. She was determined to stay awake.

In a flash of white light, they disappeared, and then reappeared, the hospital back in it's place on planet Earth.

* * *

"Martha!" Tish's was the first face she saw when she woke up near the back of an ambulance, wrapped in a blanket and with an oxygen mask over her face. She felt the arms of her sister wrap around her tightly, and she smiled in spite of herself. "Oh, God! I thought you were dead! What happened? It was so weird, because the police wouldn't say, they didn't have a clue. And I tried phoning, but I couldn't get through. Mum's on her way, but she couldn't get through, they've closed off all the roads."

Over her sister's shoulder, Martha saw Rose walking away, towards a Police Public Call Box, pausing in front of it. Martha was glad to see it, because otherwise she might've been tempted to think that the whole ordeal had been just a crazy dream. Rose smiled at her and waved, before stepping into the box. Curious as to when she would come out of what looked to be a small box, Martha kept her eyes on the street corner. But a truck passed by, and when it was gone, Rose and the big blue box were as well.

"There's thousands of people trying to get in, the whole city's ground to a halt, and Dad phoned, cause it's on the news and everything, he was crying. It's been a mess, and what happened? I mean, what really happened? Where were you?" Martha stared at the place the blue box had been, hearing, though she didn't know it, the last traces of the TARDIS engines.

* * *

Martha was applying her mascara for the party, listening to the radio.

_"Eyewitness reports from the Royal Hope Hospital continue to pour in, and it all seems to be remarkably consistent. This from medical student Oliver Morgenstern. _'I was there. I saw it happen. And I feel uniquely privileged. I looked out at the surface of the moon. I saw the Earth, suspended in space, and it all just proves Mr Saxon right. We're not alone in the universe. There's life out there: wild and extraordinary life.'_"_

She smiled as she heard this, finishing her makeup and leaving her flat for the party.

* * *

Annalise was the first to storm outside. "I am not prepared to be insulted!" She wailed into the night, followed closely by Clive.

"She didn't mean it, sweetheart. She just said you look healthy." He tried to soothe, but his ex-wife was having none of it.

"No, I did not. I said _orange._"

"Clive, that woman is disrespecting me. She's never liked me!" Annalise's wails were growing louder now, drawing attention from outsiders.

"Oh, I can't think why, after you stole my husband." Francine snarled bitterly in response. Annalise sniffed and turned away from her.

"I was seduced. I'm entirely innocent! Tell her, Clive!" She insisted, looking to the man, but Francine Jones was nowhere near done.

"And then she has a go at Martha, practically accused her of making the whole thing up!"

"Mum, I don't mind. Just leave it..." Martha tried to help bring the peace, to settle things down, it was her brother's twenty-first, after all.

"Oh. 'I've been to the moon!' As if. They were drugged. It said so on the news!" The woman screeched back in response, either not hearing or ignoring Martha.

"Since when did you watch the news? You can't handle 'Quiz Mania'!"

Tish sighed, leaning closer to Martha, and whispering in her ear, "Annalise started it. She did. I heard her." Leo rounded on his own sister now, giving her a scathing look.

"Tish, don't make it worse."

"You're talking, Leo. What did she buy you, soap? A seventy-five pence soap?"

Annalise threw her hands in the air as she stormed away, yelling as she went, "Oh, I'm never talking to your family again!" They were all talking over each other now.

"Oh, stay. Have a night out." Francine jeered at the blond's back.

"Don't you dare. I'm putting my foot down. This is me, putting my foot down!" Clive yelled. Turns out, him 'putting his foot down' meant chasing after her.

"Make a fool of yourself! God knows, you've been doing it for the last twenty-five years! Why stop now?" Martha's mother yelled louder than just about all of them put together, and that's saying something.

She stormed off. Tish followed her mother, talking the whole time. "Mum, don't! I asked the DJ and he's playing that song later!"

Martha, distressed, sees Rose standing on the corner, looking at her. She smiled and jerked her head in a 'follow me' kind of way before turning and retreating into an alley. Martha followed her around the building and found her standing and leaning against the police box from earlier, with a "VOTE SAXON" poster on the wall behind her.

Rose was dressed in a pair of blue jeans and a light blue t-shirt. Over the t-shirt is a leather jacket and a royal blue scarf. Her dark hair was pulled up into a ponytail, and if she was wearing any makeup, Martha didn't notice at all.

"I went to the moon today." She started, tilting her head.

"A bit more peaceful than down here, I'd say." Rose commented, a knowing smile inching its way across her features.

"You never even told me who you are."

"Yes I did." She replied, tilting her head to the left a bit. "I'm Rose."

"What sort of species? It's not every day I get to ask that."

"I'm a Time Lord... Well _technically _I'm a Time Lady, but Time Lord sounds way cooler."

"Right! Not pompous at all, then." She teased, earning a smile.

"I just thought since you essentially saved my life and the life of everyone in the hospital, and I've got a brand new sonic screwdriver which needs testing, you might fancy a trip."

"What, into space?" She asked with a laugh.

"Yep, anywhere in the universe, one free trip, anywhere you want to go. My treat." It was tempting, Martha had to admit, the offer of going away and seeing the universe, but she bit her lip and looks down, reminded of her responsibilities.

"I can't. I've got exams. I've got things to do. I have to go into town first thing and pay the rent, I've got my family going mad..." She started listing the reasons, and Rose doesn't really react, she just gives a smile like she understood completely.

"If it helps at all, It also travels through time, as well."

"Get out of here!" She laughed, because Rose had to be joking. There's no way she could travel through time in nothing but a little wooden box.

"I can."

"Come on now, I've believed you up 'till here, but that's going too far."

"I'll prove it."

She went into the Police Box, and the noise of the engine echoed off the brick walls. It then proecedes to disappear while Martha watched. She waved her hand in the spot where it was, shocked. A few seconds later, It came back. Then Rose stepped out, her blue scarf held in her hand.. The same scarf as..

"Told you!"

"I know, but... that was this morning! But - Did you... Oh, my God! You _can_ travel in time!" Rose wrapped the scarf back around her neck and laughs, lightly.

"But hold on, if you could see me this morning, why didn't you tell me not to go in to work?"

"Crossing into established events is strictly forbidden." She said, her expression turning extremely serious.. Until it burst into a smile "Except for cheap tricks."

"And that's your spaceship?" She asked, gesturing vaguely toward the Police Box.

"Yup. She's called the TARDIS. Time and Relative Dimension in Space."

"Your spaceship's made of wood. There's not much room." Martha pointed out. Rose just grinned this knowing grin and pushed the doors open with her left hand.

"Take a look." Martha walked inside, followed closely by Rose. She looked around the interior of the ship, before running out again.

"Oh, no, no." She looked around it from the outside, walking in circles around the ship. "But it's just a box. But it's huge. How does it do that? It's wood!" She knocked on it experimentally. "It's like a box with that room just rammed in. It's bigger on the inside."

Rose silently mouthed the last five words along with Martha, before flashing a smile comparable to the Cheshire cat. "Is it? I hadn't noticed." She shut the door behind her, throwing her scarf and jacket onto one of the coral struts. "All right, then, let's get going!"

"But is there a crew? Like a navigator and stuff? Where is everyone?"

"Just me."

"All on your own?"

"Well, there used to be some other people here... I mean some friends.. we were like a team I guess... I had - there was recently a friend of mine. The Doctor..This was his ship at first.. And we... he was.. we were together... He's like me... kind of.. and then.. Anyway... I'm the only one left." She tried desperately to get off the subject, but of course that was what Martha's next question is about.

"Where is he now?"

"Don't know, out there somewhere, probably on some great old adventure."

"Was that his jacket hanging by the door?" The stiffening of the shoulders was all Martha needed for an answer.

"Yeah, I keep it around.. Ya know.. for when he comes back."

"Were you guys like, Mr. and Mrs. Time Lord or what..?"

"Now... don't!" Rose warned. This was not a topic she wanted to discuss right now.

"Two people all alone in a ship like this.. We're you two ever.. you know.. _together _together, if you know what I mean?"

"Stop it." Silence fell in the TARDIS at the weight behind the two words.

"Sorry." Martha muttered, looking down a bit.

"It's fine.. I just.. It's not something I like to talk about that much."

"I won't bring it up again." Martha promised quietly.

"Good. Well, then." She dashed around the console of the TARDIS, naming what she was doing as she did it, words Martha couldn't understand "Ready?" She asked, looking back at Martha, who looked absolutely bewildered.

"No?" She tried, Rose smiled.

"Off we go!" She pulled the hand brake. The TARDIS jolted and shook. She fell backwards before pulling herself back to her feet.

"Blimey, it's a bit bumpy"

Rose puts her hand out for Martha to shake, a goofy smile spreading across her face. "Welcome aboard, Miss Jones." They shake hands,

"It's my pleasure, Ms. Wolfe."

They were both flung onto the floor as the TARDIS slammed to a stop.

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**Please review, follow, and favorite. I'm serious, don't make me beg my lovelies. See you guys next chapter. *Holds out cookie tray* All chu have to do is keep reading!**


	8. Loves Labours Lost

**A/N: Hey guys, I know it's been awhile, sorry for the long wait.. I hate real life. I might not be able to update for another few weeks, I have exams and testing and stuff, but I promise to try as hard as I can. I already have a few chapters after this one done so I might be able to update a few times. **

**Disclaimer: Unless something has changed within the past few days (Which it hasn't) I don't own Doctor Who. **

* * *

Inside the TARDIS, Rose turned a wheeled control while Martha held on to the console to remain steady, mainly because the ship was shaking and jerking with such a violent intensity that it was a wonder that both were still on their feet.

"But how do you travel in time? What makes it go?" Martha asked, eyeing Rose curiously as she clung to the side of the console for dear life.

"Oh, but that would take a really long time, and quite frankly it takes _a lot _of the fun out of it. You don't want to know how, It just does. Hang on!" She practically climbed onto the console she was pressing so many things at once. Martha was flung haphazardly away from the console, landing harshly on the grated floor.

"Blimey! Do you have to pass a test to fly this thing?" She asked, standing up and checking herself out quickly. How she managed not to bust her chin open or break part of her spine was beyond her.

"You used to." Rose chirped, dashing to one of the coral supports and snatching her jacket off of it.

"And?"

"I never took it." She almost laughed at the comical look of alarm that burst all over Martha's face. "Now, make the most of it." She grabbed the other jacket as well, holding it out to her. "I promised you a trip, so come on then, lets have some fun."

"Where are we?" She asked, feeling a rush of excitement burn through her as she pulled her jacket over her shoulders.

"Take a look." Rose encouraged, pushing the door open with one hand then standing back. "After you." Martha walked outside the TARDIS and right smack onto an Elizabethan street at night. People milled about, chattering and talking, some with loud, happy voices, others in hushed, quiet whispers.

"Oh, you are kidding me. You are so kidding me. Oh, my God! We did it. We traveled in time. Where are we? No, sorry. I gotta get used to this whole new language." She paused, as if thinking something through. "When are we?" Rose heard something suspicious, and upon looking up, she yelped and pulled Martha back. From a second story window, a man dumped out the contents of a wooden bucket with a yell of 'Mind the loo!'

"Well... I know we're somewhere before the invention of indoor plumbing.. Sorry bout that, should've thought that through a bit more."

"I've seen worse. I've worked the late night shift at A&E." Rose then started to walk away, but Martha still looked worried. "But are we safe? I mean, can we move around and stuff?"

"Of course we can move around... Why wouldn't we be able to move around?" She asked, pausing and turning to face her, shoving her hands in her pockets.

"It's like in the films. You step on a butterfly; you change the future of the human race." She said dramatically. Rose just blinked, looking awkward for a moment.

"Well... just.. y'know.. don't step on any butterflies... Besides, what have butterflies ever done to you?" They continued walking, looking around, when Martha piped up with another weird question.

"What if, I dunno, what if I kill my grandfather?" Rose stopped, turned, and looked at Martha with a confused look.

"Are you.. planning to kill him?"

"No."

"Then we have nothing to worry about. Now C'mon."

"This is London?"

"I think so... Yeah.. probably about... 1600?"

"Oh, but hold on. Am I all right? I'm not gonna get carted off as a slave, am I" She suddenly sounded panicked, and Rose turned, looking confused and shocked.

"Why would they do that?"

"Not exactly white, in case you haven't noticed." Martha pointed out.

"So? In case you don't remember I'm not even human. Just walk about like you own the place. That usually works. But really, in all honesty Elizabethan England.. not incredibly different than your time." She looked toward the sky, her eyes moving the the title of a pub, and she smiled ever so much in recognition. "If I'm right, and I do warn you, I didn't get my A-levels, we're just down the river by Southwark.. which means.." She grinned like a madman and dashed about a corner, Martha following in tow. "I was right! The Globe Theatre! 'S brand new, just opened. Did you know that it's not actually a globe? It's really a tetradecagon — "S got 14 sides.

"I'm not an expert or anything.. but the Globe Theatre.. Didn't Shakespeare do most of his plays there?"

"Yep! Will you accompany me to the theatre Miss Jones?" She asked, straightening her back and acting overly formal as she grinned. Martha fought down a giggle as she looked over at Rose.

"Yes, Miss Wolfe, I think I will."

"Just think, when you get home you can tell all your mates that you've seen Shakespeare!" Rose teased as they set off at a quick walk toward the building that was bathed in light and surrounded by laughter.

"Oh yes! Then I could be institutionalized!" She responded, laughing as they ambled into the theatre, with Rose flashing the psychic paper to get them in. They blended in well enough with the Londoners in the crowd to go unnoticed while the play Loves Labors Lost was put on.

* * *

As the play ended, the cheering and laughter of the packed house was so loud it was deafening as the two woman from the future laughed along with them. The actors on stage took their bows, and the roar of the crowd seemed to intensify, if it was even possible. Martha turned to Rose, a wide smile across her face.

"That's amazing! Just amazing. It's worth putting up with the smell. And those are men dressed as women, yeah?" Rose gave yet another one of her bark-like laughs at that.

"London never changes."

"Where's Shakespeare? I wanna see Shakespeare..." She paused, putting her fist up in the air as she began to chant, "Author! Author!" Rose just looked at her, her eyebrows raised up and a quizzical look on her face. "Do people shout that? Do they shout 'Author'?" Martha asked, looking a bit more sheepish. A man in the crowd, who stood not too far off from Martha and Rose picked up the chant, and within seconds the entire theatre was yelling the word over and over.

"Well... they do now." The form of Shakespeare took shape as he strutted across the stage, taking exaggerated bows and blowing kisses to the audience. Everyone in the crowd managed to get even louder, cheering and yelling in wild abandon.

"He's a bit different from his portraits." Martha commented after taking a good, long look at the man. With a cry of 'Shut your big fat mouths!' from the man himself, the crowd fell into unrestrained laughter.

"You have excellent taste! I'll give you that." He continued, before pointing at a random man in the audience. "Oh, that's a wig!" He yelled, eliciting even more hysteria from the people. "Now, I know what you're all saying. 'Loves Labour's Lost', that's a funny ending, isn't it? It just stops! Will the boys get the girls? Well, don't get your hose in a tangle, you'll find out soon. Yeah, yeah. All in good time. You don't rush a genius." The flow of his speech suddenly stuttered as he jerked upright, almost violently. "When? Tomorrow night." More cheers from the audience seemed to spur him on. "The premiere of my brand new play. A sequel, no less, and I call it 'Loves Labour's Won'!"

Rose blinked but didn't say anything as she and Martha began to file out with the rest of the audience. The Doctor had prattled on about Shakespeare more times than she could count, but she remembered nothing about 'Loves Labour's Won'. Nothing. Apparently Martha was thinking along the same lines.

"I'm not an expert, but I've never heard of 'Loves Labour's Won'."

"Neither have I.. and The- my friend used to be a Shakespeare fanatic.. that and Charles Dickens.. He used to ramble all about his plays.. Never heard him talk about Loves Labour's Won though.. I was just gonna give you a quick little trip in the TARDIS but I suppose we could stay a bit longer if you'd like.." Martha nodded quickly, eager to see and experience more. They wandered around the streets of London, doing nothing more than enjoying themselves, looking at the jewelry and the books and the various other things that vendors sold right out on the streets. It wasn't until Rose's internal clock told her that it was almost midnight and Martha yawned for about the twelfth time in ten minutes, they decided to look for an inn to retire to for the night.

They stood on the street outside the Elephant Inn, where it was said that Shakespeare typically found lodging. Rose led the way in, asking a short, blonde woman for a room and flashing the psychic paper again, though Martha didn't know what it was. Rose then started up the stairs of the inn, not bothering waiting for the woman to return with any information. She heard the faintly familiar voice of Shakespeare drifting from and open doorway, and without another thought she walked right on in, Martha following behind her, looking nervous.

"Hello!" She knocked on the doorframe, though she was mostly already in. "Excuse me! I'm not interrupting, am I? Mr. Shakespeare, isn't it?" Not even looking up at them, Shakespeare started on a rant, rolling his eyes as he scribbled messily on the parchment before him.

"Oh no, no, no, no. Who let you in? No autographs. No, you can't have yourself sketched with me. And please don't ask where I get my ideas from. Thanks for the interest. Now be a good-" His eyes finally raised to look at the two women. Rose stood still, seemingly not at all bothered by his disinterest, though Martha felt a flush warm her skin. "Hey you lovely ladies.. You two can sit right down here next to me." He said flirtatiously, turning to the two others at the table. "You two go get sewing on them costumes. Off you go!" The blond woman from downstairs looked mildly amused.

"Come on, lads. I think our William's found his new muses." She left after the others, leaving the three of them alone in the room with the exception of a young maid. Martha took a seat at the table, while Rose remained standing, looking mildly amused.

"Such unusual clothes. So... fitted." He commented, and Rose fought the urge to roll her eyes. He was just like Jack, always eager to flirt. She was sure if you left him alone with a cactus long enough he'd try and bust a move. She held out the psychic paper, grateful for its inherent usefulness.

"I'm Dame Rose of TARDIS and this is my companion, Miss Martha Jones." She said formally, willing the paper to show William the exact information she had just verbalized.

"Interesting, that bit of paper. It's blank." He commented, and Rose blinked in surprise. Okay, that was unexpected, and impressive.

"Guess that proves it. Absolute genius." She said it more to herself, but Martha heard, and she looked entirely lost. She peered at the paper, pointing at it.

"No, it says so right there. Dame Rose, Martha Jones. It says so."

"And I say it's blank." Shakespeare countered, looking to Rose as if in expectation. She just sighed and turned to Martha, explaining quickly.

"It's psychic paper. Long story." She groaned quietly. "Starting from scratch usually takes way too long.." She put the psychic paper back in her pocket, trying to think of a way to explain things to Will without sounding entirely mad and ending up in a sixteenth century asylum.

"Psychic. Never heard that before and words are my trade. Who are you two beauties exactly?"

"Martha and I are from a far off land.." She thought quickly, searching for the right words and failing miserably as she muttered, "Freedonia." If Shakespeare had any comment on the horribly fabricated place, he didn't get to say it, because another man burst into the room, his face firmly displaying anger for all to see.

"Excuse me!" He yelled, "Hold hard a moment. This is abominable behaviour. A new play with no warning? I demand to see a script, Mr Shakespeare. As Master of the Revels, every new script must be registered at my office and examined by me before it can be performed!" Shakespeare seemed nothing more than mildly bored.

"Tomorrow morning, first thing, I'll send it 'round."

"I don't work to your schedule, you work to mine. The script, now!"

"I can't!" He finally admitted, exasperated.

"Then tomorrow's performance is cancelled!" As Lynley bellowed, the main slipped quietly from the room.

"It's all go, 'round here, isn't it?" Martha muttered to herself, though Rose nodded slightly in agreement, but Lynley wasn't done yet.

"I'm returning to my office for a banning order. If it's the last thing I do, 'Love's Labours Won' will never be played!" He roared, storming out and slamming the door after him.

"Well, then... mystery solved. That's 'Love's Labours Won' over and done with. Thought it might be something more, you know... more mysterious." Martha sounded something like a cross between disappointed and relieved at the prospect of already having the answer. That's when they heard horrific and blood chilling screaming from outside. They rushed out to the street where Lynley was spitting up water.

"It's that Lynley bloke."

"What's wrong with him? Great.. Let me handle this.." She ran forward, moving to Lynley's side.

"I'm a doctor.. Well.. near enough." Martha argued, following. Lynley hit the ground with a sickening thud, and Rose stood and turned to look down the street, dashing a few feet in either direction. Martha knelt next to the inert man, listening for a heartbeat and breathing.

"Gotta get the heart going. Mr Lynley, C'mon, can you hear me? You're gonna be all right." She prepared to start mouth-to-mouth as Rose returned and water gushed from Lynley's mouth. "What the hell is that?" She gasped, recoiling. Rose blinked in surprise.

"I've never seen a death like it. His lungs are full of water — he drowned and then... I dunno, 's like a blow to the heart.." She stood and looked to Dolly, putting on a voice of authority. "Good mistress, this poor fellow has died from a sudden shifting of the humors. A natural though truly tragic demise. Call a constable and have him taken away."

"Yes, ma'am." Dolly nodded, but before she could move too far, the maid from earlier joined them.

"I'll do it, ma'am" She walked away with a satisfied smirk while Rose crouched back down beside the body. Martha looked at her, her eyebrows arched in confusion.

"And why are you telling them that?" She inquired, motioning to Dolly, who stood a few feet away. She sighed and began to explain.

"This point in time society still has their left foot in the Dark Ages. If I tell them the truth, that this man drowned miles from the river and was hit in the chest without anyone laying a finger on him, they'll panic, think it was witchcraft, and all hell will break loose.

"Okay, what really caused it then?"

"Witchcraft."

* * *

They returned to Shakespeare's office, settling back down in the positions they had before, with Shakespeare and Martha both sitting and Rose standing, lounging almost in the corner. Dolly's voice piped up from behind them.

"I got you a room, Dame Rose. You and Miss Jones are just across the landing." Rose thanked her and she left. Shakespeare sighed, looking at the two girls before him.

"Poor Lynley. So many strange events. Not least of all, this land of Freedonia where a woman can be a doctor?" He looked at Martha skeptically, though she didn't even move under his gaze.

"Where a woman can do what she likes." She corrected in an even voice.

"And you, Dame Rose. How can a girl so young have eyes so broken? Eyes that have seen so much more than they should."

"I travel a lot." She replied tersely, not much liking the personal questions.

"A trite reply. Yeah, that's what I'd do." He turned to Martha again. "And you, you look at her like you're surprised she even exists. She's as much of a puzzle to you as she is to me."

"I think we should say good night." Martha said roughly, looking at Rose before standing up and walking out.

"I must work. I have a play to complete. But I'll get my answers tomorrow, Dame Rose, and I'll discover more about you and why this constant performance of yours." Rose started for the door, pausing at the doorway and looking back.

"All the world's a stage." She mumbled, mainly to herself, but apparently Shakespeare heard.

"Hm, I might use that. Good night, Rose." She laughed another bark-like laugh.

"Nighty-night, Shakespeare... Huh.. Not many people get to say that.." She mumbled to herself, walking out of the office and starting toward the room Dolly had signed to them. Martha was examining their room when Rose entered with a long, low sigh.

"It's not exactly five-star, is it?" She teased, her eyes flicking over it again.

"Oh, it'll do. I've seen worse. Ever stayed the night in a Raxacoricofallapatorian prison?" Martha blinked.

"Raxacorico-what? Ugh.. Never mind.. I haven't even got a toothbrush." Rose just shrugged, looking out the window.

"Not a huge deal. In the grand scale of the whole universe missing one brushing won't hurt anything." She had to admit that she had a point, and she sighed, sitting on the edge of the bed.

"So, who's going where? I mean, there's only one bed." Shrugging again, the fair skinned brunette settled in a chair in the corner of the room.

"I'm good, don't need to sleep too much anyway. You can take the bed." Martha looked doubtful but she nodded and leaned back on the not-so-soft material.

"So, magic and stuff. That's a surprise. It's a little bit 'Harry Potter'."

Rose laughed, a ghost of a smile flittering across her features.

"Wait till you read Book Seven. I cried.. Not nearly as much as-" She stopped short, looking down. She'd never forget the time she walked into the TARDIS library to find The Doctor crying what he called 'the manliest of tears' on a couch in the very back, the book clutched to his chest. If Martha noticed her sudden change in mood, she didn't let on.

"But is it real, though? I mean, witches, black magic and all that, it's real?"

"Course not!"

"Well, how am I supposed to know? I've only just started believing in time travel. Give me a break." She defended herself.

"It looks like witchcraft, but it isn't. It _can't_ be. I mean, yeah there's such a thing as psychic energy but a human couldn't channel it like that. Not without a generator the size of a small town and I'd have spotted that..I'm missing something, Martha. Something really close, staring me right in the face and I just can't see it. Nothing I've read is helping at all.." She paused, looking toward the ceiling. "The Doctor would know. That friend of mine. Right now, he'd be bouncing all up and down the room rambling and raving like a madman while he came up with some plan that was so crazy it seemed impossible.." She sighed, curling her knees up into the chair. "Still, can't be helped. I'll take you back home tomorrow, if that's what you want." Giving a gentle look to the human girl, Rose forced a smile that Martha returned carefully.

"If you ever want to talk about it.." She started, but Rose cut her off quickly.

"No.. It's fine. Get some sleep Martha." She turned her back on her and blew out the candle, thrusting them into complete darkness. Martha drifted off into not exactly easy sleep while Rose sat on the chair, perfectly awake in the corner, her mind racing. At some point in the night she drifted into a doze so light she was still partly awake.

A piercing scream woke them both.

* * *

**There you go, the first chapter for The Shakespeare Code. Not much longer until we get a paradoxical adventure with past!Jack and past!Doctor. Yay! Reviews are much appreciated and I'll see you next chapter my lovelies. **


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